There’s one kind of blog post I dread seeing in my feed reader. They’re the blog posts that sport headlines like “The ONE Thing You Need to do to Become a Successful Writer” or “The Best Writing Advice You’ll Ever Get.” Why do I dread these kinds of posts? Well, other than the obnoxiously gimmicky clickbait titles they tend to use, I usually know what
If you’ve been following this blog for a while you might have seen some of my free Scrivener templates. Unfortunately those are a bit scattered throughout the blog, and I’ve had a couple of folks this week email me trying to find one of my blogging templates and another reader asked for recommendations about mystery templates without realizing I’d released one here. So I thought
WordPress 4.3 was recently released, and if you haven’t upgraded yet you should. It has a great new feature for writers, helping you write blog posts faster while spending less time formatting your content. When we talked about using Scrivener for blogging, I shared a free Markdown cheat sheet with you. Markdown lets you use simple formatting shortcuts as you type so you don’t have
It’s August. Seriously. When did that happen? Normally by now I’ve completed a detailed mid-year evaluation and posted my quarterly check-in on the blog. Whoops! Actually, it was less a simple oversight and more an issue of reorganization. By mid-July, I knew a few things weren’t working out as planned, so I decided to make some changes. The usual mid-year check-in was scrapped. It was a dud
Do you ever start work on Monday mornings feeling suffocated by your email inbox? That’s how I felt yesterday morning. I receive a lot of email every day, including on the weekends. But this weekend I received a couple thousand extras beyond my norm, and I never poked my head in to stay on top of it (not that I should on my days off). While
Last week Paula Hendrickson wrote a great guest post for Lori Widmer’s blog on vetting writing experts. This topic is near and dear to my heart because I’ve had more new writers come to me looking for help after taking horrible advice from pseudo experts than I can count. I feel for those writers. It’s easy to get sucked in because some of these charlatans are masters
Not long ago I was contacted by Michelle Nickolaisen, asking if I’d like to review The Freelancer Planner. Of course I said “yes.” Planners? Organization? Schedules? She clearly knew the way to this freelancer’s heart. Total organization junkie over here. Michelle sent over a review copy of the downloadable version of her planner. This is a six-page .pdf planner (minus the cover page) that you can print
Do you know what your “perfect day” looks like? Those are the days when you achieve far more than you might normally expect, where you feel good and rested but still productive. They’re the days that don’t leave you feeling drained. They’re the days that leave you wanting more. I know what my “perfect day” looks like because I’ve lived it plenty of times. And
I think most people by nature are polite. Maybe more so with authors, because we’ve had our hearts ripped out and stomped on repeatedly by literary agents and publishers. And maybe there’s some unwritten code I don’t know about, that says if you’re an author and you’re reviewing someone else’s work, you have to give them five stars and a glowing review. If that’s the
2024 Update: As of June 2024, I cannot in good faith recommend Grammarly’s service to any All Freelance Writing readers. This is a combination of the company’s past unethical and exploitational behavior regarding their affiliate relationships as well as my recent re-exploration of their services through a school-provided premium account while pursuing a Master’s program. Please disregard the outdated information below. It will temporarily remain published
Apologies for the delay in this episode of the All Freelance Writing Podcast. I ran into some recording difficulties last week. But that will not affect the schedule for our next episode, which will go out Friday of next week. This week’s episode is a Q&A special — the first general writers’ Q&A special, although I’ve done one specific to bloggers in the past. I
A frequent productivity complaint of writers is that social media can become a big distraction from their writing. That hasn’t been an issue for me recently. But something else has: email. Today is my first day back to work after about a week off. It wasn’t planned time off. I simply decided to take some personal time, after clearing up client projects early. Normally when
Earlier this week, I went off on Elance / Upwork for their BS blogger outreach efforts that targeted me and several other colleagues (I’ve heard from at least six others now who were a part of this supposed “handful” of targeted blogs). In that post, I shared a simple infographic highlighting the three big mistakes Upwork made, in the hopes that other businesses would see
The latest episode of the All Freelance Writing Podcast is now live. As promised in my last post’s comments, it includes an extension of the Elance / Upwork fiasco with their lame blogger relations attempt. Then I move on to offer a few tips to bloggers who are tired of finding themselves on these lists. Also in this episode: Is there really a difference
It’s days like these I wish I hadn’t retired Naked PR. If you don’t already know, I used to own a small PR firm, where I was an early specialist in online public relations and social media consulting (before everyone under the sun started thinking they were qualified to call themselves that). Naked PR was my blog where I had a tendency to say things
Did you miss any of last month’s Writers Worth Month posts over on Lori Widmer’s Words on the Page blog? No worries. You can find links to all posts in the series below. Check out Lori’s site in general. She offers great advice to newer writers all year long. I’m a particular fan of her “This Job, Not That Job” series where she highlights lousy
In this week’s “short share,” we have a two-year book writing plan from HuntersWritings.com. While two years might be an unnecessarily long time for many indie authors these days, I think it’s a great plan for new authors — especially those trying to write their first book alongside a traditional day job. If you find yourself with limited time to write, but you’d like to
It doesn’t matter how experienced of a writer you are. You’re bound to feel unmotivated every now and then. Sometimes you can plow through these periods. But at other times you’ll need to find ways to get excited about your projects again. I’m like any other writer in this regard. I have good days and bad days. Sometimes a lack of motivation is a result
Scrivener is a wonderful tool for writers. You can use it to write a novel or nonfiction book. You can use it to format your writing as an e-book. You can even use Scrivener for blogging. That said, Scrivener can also be a complicated tool to use. I doubt I even know half of what it can do. It’s one of those tools that you
Freelance writers often take on complementary services. For example, a web content writer might handle social media marketing for the content they write. Freelance bloggers might be asked to step in and assist a client even before they have a blog set up. If you’re able to quickly set up WordPress for your clients, charging them for the service might make a lot of sense. But if
When a client visits your professional website, are they getting the information they want and need? Are benefits of hiring you, as opposed to your competition, clear? Do they leave with enough information to make a hiring decision, or at least feel inclined to contact you? An effective freelance writer website should do those things. Does yours? I previously announced I’m in the process of
Anonymity online is a hotly debated issue. Is it “wrong” to post anything anonymously because it means you aren’t taking responsibility for your words? Or is it an acceptable way of communicating online? And when you work as a writer, is there anything you can do to protect your personal information, whether you choose to write anonymously or not? This is an issue where I
This week’s “short share” is an infographic from Brian Scott and FreelanceWriting.com. It presents common examples of publication rights freelance writers might come across while negotiating contracts. This is important information to know. I meet new writers all the time who assume that copyrights automatically transfer to clients simply because they’ve paid for the end result. That isn’t the case. Contract language has to be
In this week’s episode of the All Freelance Writing Podcast, I highlight five common blogging myths and misunderstandings new bloggers should look out for. Blogging myths featured in this episode include: You have to post every day, or nearly every day. Every post should be “epic” content, over 2000 words, etc. There’s some big difference between “blog posts” and “articles,” and freelance bloggers should be
Earlier this year, Lori Widmer stopped by the All Freelance Writing Podcast to guest co-host an episode on everyday marketing for freelance writers. Our chat ran long, so some segments had to be cut. That included a ten-minute segment about writing for content mills. We also touched on a simple tactic for finding better gigs and leaving mills behind — something Lori calls “stealth marketing.”
Have you seen bloggers feature tweetable quotes in their posts? If they’re using one of the more popular plugins, they probably look like pull quotes. Unfortunately there isn’t much variation in design, and blogs using this feature have all started having their tweetable quotes look alike. That’s why I previously showed you how you can add your own tweetable quotes, without a plugin, and with any design
Last week I received a reader question from Shirley Gazenski. She’s in an interesting position — torn between past samples in three distinct specialty areas. She wanted to know if I had any advice for her, and she agreed to have my feedback posted here in case any other community members find themselves in a similar position. Let’s start with her past work. Shirley has
For this week’s short share, I have an infographic for freelancers. This one looks at some of the pros and cons of freelancing, and it was presented by GraphicDesignDegreeHub.com. While this was published back in 2013, I’m curious if you see if your own freelance careers are reflected in the data. Which side do you fall on? Did you get into freelance writing because you wanted to?
“The best freelance writing jobs are almost never publicly advertised.” This is something I’ve pointed out countless times over the years. Yet one of the biggest questions I get from new writers is “where do I find gigs?” The best gigs aren’t usually advertised for a few reasons. Clients already have contacts that can refer qualified writers. They prefer to search for a writer on
Is your marketing helping you reach the best freelance writing prospects? That depends on your target market and how successful you are at reaching members of that group. One of the biggest mistakes a new freelance writer can make is having no target market. That’s when you simply take any gig that comes along, whether or not you enjoy the work, whether or not you