Writing Success

The Advantages of Freelance Writing

You might be a little bit nervous about launching your freelance writing career and that’s completely understandable. Fortunately, there are quite a number of benefits to being a freelancer - especially if your area of expertise is in writing.

Check out this video put together by the folks at FreelanceWriting.com. It covers the three main advantages of freelance writing and gives you some tips and tricks on what you need to get started.

Don’t forget - getting started in the field of freelance writing isn’t easy but it’s definitely worth the time and effort you’re going to put into it. Take your time, start slowly, and before you know it you’ll be on the path to success!

10 More Places to Find Inspiration for Your Next Article

It’s early in the week, so I thought I’d offer up a few more suggestions for great places to look for article ideas. We all get stuck in a rut now and again, so its nice to know you can find inspiration in out of the way places. That is, if you know where those places are.

The next time you’re feeling stuck for an article idea try looking at some of the following.

1. 1. Go to the local park, mall, or (if you’re lucky) boardwalk and start watching the people as they mill around. Your’e bound to see at least one or two interesting events - kids acting silly, people arguing, a physical altercation. Take what you see and hear and find a way to spin it into an article.
2. 2. Talk to your friends and neighbors about events in the local or national news. Find out what their opinions are and listen carefully. You may hear an angle you’ve never thought of.
3. 3. Sit down outside and free associate. Grab a blanket, head towards the park (or your backyard) and let your mind do the talking. You might even take a pen and piece of paper for some good old-fashioned free association doodling. …Continue Reading 10 More Places to Find Inspiration for Your Next Article

Writing Success Blog Carnival - June 2009

Social Networking with TwitterFollow

Not long ago, problogger John Chow introduced a new service known as TwitterFollow. The premise is that if you join you promise to “follow” anyone who follows you on Twitter.

Sounds like a great idea for those of us who need to build a Twitter following for marketing purposes, right?

Wrong.

I implemented TwitterFollow on my personal Twitter account just to see how it would work out. In the end I managed to accumulate 700+ Twitter followers - none of whom bother to read what I “tweet.” …Continue Reading Social Networking with TwitterFollow

Making a Video with Windows Movie Maker

Freelance writing won’t always be about writing text. In some instances you may be asked to put together some sort of instructional video, in which case you’ll want to be familiar with a simple to use (and FREE) movie editing program such as Windows Movie Maker.

I had the opportunity to make my own first video last week and while I wasn’t able to use Windows Movie Maker, the program I used was very similar. I highly encourage all freelance writers to at least learn how to make a simple video. You never know when you’ll be asked to make one and it’ll only serve to increase your value as a writer while enhancing your skill set.

Check out this brief Windows Movie Maker Tutorial for an introduction…

Technical Skills and Freelancing

Here’s hoping you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. Mine was busy and I’m sure you’re wondering where I was all last week. I was attempting to set up a new computer and was having a very difficult and time-consuming experience.

You’ve heard it before and you’ll hear it again. Make sure you backup your system on a regular basis. You never know when some sort of unfortunate technical glitch will send your harddrive into computer purgatory and if you don’t have a backup you’ll lose all of your past and present work. What a drag…

In my case, fortunately, I didn’t necessarily need to use a backup to restore lost files (though I did end up making a new one to transfer files from one computer to the other). I was lucky, though. …Continue Reading Technical Skills and Freelancing

Marketing through Cold Calling

Don’t panic. Yes, I did refer to cold calling in the title of this post. No, I don’t think every freelance writer needs to resort to cold calling to find work. Yes, I do think you should familiarize yourself with the concept.

Building a successful freelance writing career means being willing to take risks. When times are tough it will be up to you to begin thinking outside of the box in order to find work. This may mean, in some cases, getting OFF of the computer and offering your services to local businesses.

…Continue Reading Marketing through Cold Calling

Finding Clips for Your Portfolio

Putting together a strong portfolio is one of the most difficult things a new freelance writer has to do. Many writers feel that spending the time to write clips for their portfolios means they’ll have to write for others either for free or for a very low rate of pay.

This, my friends, is simply not the case. There are dozens of markets you can approach with your work and in the end you’ll have plenty of work to include in your portfolio. Check out this brief video by Misti Sandefur for more information on her favorite ways to find clips for writing portfolios.

Maintaining Your Identity as a Writer

So many of us embark on writing careers only to find that they work we are doing begins to define us. In a perfect world, however, you as a writer will instead inject life into your work. You maintain control at all times. In the beginning you may find yourself feeling a bit insecure about your work. That’s OK - it’s completely normal - but it’s something you need to get over as well.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• The more you write, the better you’ll get at it. The same thing happened when you were born and began learning how to talk. You didn’t have a full vocabulary from the start - it had to develop and grow. The same thing will happen with your writing skills. …Continue Reading Maintaining Your Identity as a Writer

Overworked and Underpaid? Not Likely…

It’s not uncommon for everyone, at some point in his career, to get to the point where he feels as though he’s overworked and underpaid. The real truth, however, is that most of the people who complain about being overworked really aren’t. They feel as though there aren’t enough hours in the day to get work done, but in truth they’re really not focused on the tasks at hand. …Continue Reading Overworked and Underpaid? Not Likely…