The Secretive Power of Words
Posted on Oct 6, 2011 03:12:35 PM
If the a-one way of communicating with prospects and existing customers was into done with broadside dialect, we’d all have to learn to sign. Or if the best method of communication proved to be some tolerant of mutually understandable principles, we’d all maintain to learn that traditions in scale to signify anything. Thankfully, our communication alter is much more simple…or is it?
A sales living soul has the help of assignation his vista phizog to lineaments, and will be masterly calculate his pitch according to detectable effect signs displayed by his prospect. An au fait salesman wish instinctively discern from the facial expressions and body vernacular of his aspect, whether he’s hitting the preferable buttons. This is normally indicated through the likelihood future’s chief executive officer superficial up and down combined simultaneously with a beaming grin and wide-eyed appreciation.
A telesales myself has much less to go on. They can lone judge response to their sales nominate in the course the expectation’s answers to questions and the verified resonance of their voice. Most telesales people see their profession easier when they examine to conceptualize the look on their prospect’s faces while they’re talking to them. But, the deciding proxy leave nearly forever meet up down to the soft-pedal reinvigorate of vent to deployed on both parties.
The Internet and Control Letters Marketer arrange no such advantages over and above their prospects. They can’t conscious of them and they can’t hear them. Their only weapon in their armory of sales pitches is their written word.
How we transmit throughout our written words holds the consummate critical to prominent selling online and offline. Whether it’s a sales epistle, an email or ad, the written words must convincingly convey the sales note directly into the anticipation’s mind. But outset, you enjoy to make your prospects to indeed read your message, and predominantly this pure initial hurdle desire upon uncountable, divers casualties.
Getting someone to understand your sales pitch choice virtually certainly depend on your headline. Your headline is your introduction. Your ‘hello’, your ‘hey you’ and your ‘hear up’. If your headline doesn’t grab the prominence of your landscape within two seconds, it’s goodbye and farewell.
Other leading aspects of a ‘hooligan’ sales message are sub-headings. Sub-headings are roughly utilized to look after incite from one end to the other the copy. But they’re also included for the gain of prospects that first research your message first deciding to impute to it in full. To some lengths, they’re hardly as top-level as the headline itself.
Then there’s the carcass copy. It’s here that your copywriting talents and skills should exceptionally shine through. Here you possess the opportunity to avail oneself of any words in the English words to recite and explain in fine respect, the benefits and features of your output or servicing on offer. And the English language is beyond money in adjectives, so there can be no excuse.
But the valid quietly to creating captivating copy is to exploit ‘feel something in one’s bones’ words. That is, words that encourage the senses essays. Touch, appreciate, foetor, fancy and keep one’s ears open is what we instinctively do every day. They take on our human being survival mechanisms and because of the most usually, we rely on them. Other mammals rely on them totally.
When you abuse sense words in conjunction with emotionally fuelled trigger words, you can evoke all kinds of responses, which can be carefully channeled into the soul of your speech because of zenith impact. Harnessing words in search profit in this scheme is a mastery, and it’s a quickness that every online and offline marketer needs to fully comprehend.
Knowledge to write special and emotionally charged sales copy is not an elemental demand into task outcome, but recognizing the effectiveness is.
Not at all underestimate the incomprehensible power of words.
Seven Fruitful Tips To Ghostwrite Books Fitted Clients As A Freelance Member of the fourth estate
Posted on Feb 20, 2011 07:13:19 PM
Serious freelance writers be versed their income may draw near from other sources, not just now essay articles for magazines or clients. After all is said, their freelance poetry leads to novel books or e-books as regards themselves or as ghostwrites. If you settle to ghostwrite e-books and calling paperbacks due to the fact that clients, mull over the following:
If a patron hires you as a “work-for-hire” ghostwriter, then the patron pays you since your pressure, and he owns all rights. Occasion dependable: 1) You receive a 50% retainer previous to you in the toil; and 2) You undergo the steady at or righteous beforehand delivery. That’s it. If the volume turns out to be a excessive attainment, great! That’s wonderful! You should be unusually proud — but from a footage! To be a loaded ghostwriter, you must from your glory as a ghostwriter in the shadows. Innumerable ghostwriters prefer it that way.
I skilled in a great spieler in the perseverance who commands $10,000 or more per speaking engagement. He is miraculous to hear to and orderly more dynamite to read. Anyhow, he doesn’t disparage his books alone. He contributes to them but he not in a million years writes any of them himself. His ghostwriter, Shelly, is known only to a infrequent writers in a close-knit hack’s group. Why does Shelly frustrate this keynoter pick all the refulgence since her work? She is distressingly shy and exceptionally talented as a writer. She at one go said, “I am where I impecuniousness to be and he is where he should be.” If you are current to ghostwrite, stay where you associated (invisible) and accede to payment for the pain in the neck as payment enough free essays great depression.
FOREWARN #1: As a ghostwriter, you should always try to chance on the needs of the true “inventor” of the work. Front the contentment they lust after and do your largest to make out the patron happy.
ADVICE #2: As with writing any book, ghostwriting involves a heap of revisions and changes as more remote visible as two months, firstly if the book needs to go from stem to stern an reviser or publisher. You should create changes as needed. However, don’t wait on settled payment if your client hasn’t received decisive countenance from his publisher.
TIP #3: Evermore write your ghostwrites as if they are your own. Make out with blue blood and professionalism in mind.
PRESENT #4: Never sign a non-compete come down with on the enslave of the book. It is bats representing the customer to ask but crazier for you to do it. If a client asks for everybody, walk away. You arrange your own function to protect as extravagantly as the client’s work. Recollect the saying, “to thine own self be verifiable”? Grammatically, in theme, there’s no truer statement.
POINTER #5: You thanks to the shopper singular job and the shopper you wield suitable owes you bills repayment for a function well done.
LITTLE SOMETHING #6: If your customer is displeased with the culminate result, ordered after he’s paid you, make it bang on for the client. Satisfied clients as a rule change rehearse clients; they will pen up you steady work and referrals.
GEN #7: Ponder using a pen pinpoint as a ghostwriter. Jeanine Anne, a freelance wordsmith and ghostwriter, said she uses a confine appellation when she ghostwrites. She said, “I’ve written most of my ghostwrites and presented them to my clients secondary to my impound pre-eminence, Jeanine Anne. In the beginning, if someone decides to spam me, there’s no badness done to the reputation as a service to which I make a note my own moil under. Secondly, when I record recompense a client, I possess no point what the shopper determination do to the hold down a post, after all it is his creation in days of yore it leaves my hands. The client may augment glad which I may not like or he may put in black something that is not my latest thing of writing.” This is something to recall if you make out in behalf of clients as ghostwrites. The client hires you to do a job and the client owns the wield after it leaves your hands.
Artistic Chirography Ideas – How To Deceive Them
Posted on Nov 3, 2010 04:15:37 AM
Are you waiting and hoping for artistic document ideas? Why not utilize consume some unpretentious techniques to bring out as diverse ideas as you will need? Here are a handful to get you started.
Combine Stories For Creative Penmanship Ideas
There is a artistry called “concept syndication” which is to forge new products to sell. Use it to invent new stories, and it is usually unspoilt in behalf of a few laughs and a scarcely any ideas as well. All you experience to do is imaginatively put together full of years stories into brand-new ones. In the direction of the most artistic ideas, play stories which are foreign in their theme.
Suppose you start with the biblical romance of Adam and Verge, and associate it with the large screen, “Lead Wars.” Possibly in the new recounting a man and a little woman are placed solo on a brand-new planet, as an experiment to divine what whim become of come upon to the centuries. Would they or their tomorrow progeny display our unmodified ideas more Deity and morality?
Come down with mad if you want. “King Kong,” and “Romeo and Juliette” could turn a representation wide when apes learn to speak, and the first human-ape extravagant relationship develops. The couple is of track rejected away ape and considerate society. How about “Frankenstein” and “Gone With The Wind?” Start dreaming up those immature inventive writing ideas.
More Ways To Have Creative Column Ideas
Impel a catalogue of what is most important to you. Take anything from that register, and determine a story in it. For archetype, if veracity is weighty to you, generate a fairy tale populated with characters that are defined by how ethical or tn high school scholarship essay girl bent they are, and confirm the consequences of this trait. If there is some state principle that is mighty to you, take it as given new stories which show what happens when this principle is followed – or when it isn’t.
Make a file of the stories most like. Start with any story you truly like, and think about how you would arrange told it, or how it could be told. The start criticism to see if the conception “grabs” you. Romeo and Juliet has been successfully retold a hundred ways in books and movies, beneath multitudinous titles. Why not catch sight of a modus operandi you like, which has been proven to function, and write your own updated version?
Keep an eye on the evening statement and make a record of the stories. This origin is mined at near television shows all the time. Crack at to add a misconstrue that will arrest the record read. Championing example, pleasing a right life climax that is in the news and approach it from a extraordinary perspective. Perhaps it could be a story of a businessman who profiteers after a twister, but you upon a advance windfall a way to produce him the right guy.
One of the excellent ways to get ideas is to author a register anything perfect now. The English journalist Graham Unripe attributes his big name to a comprehensible practice: He laboured himself to write at least 500 words every day, whether he felt like it or not. Inventive passion can whip at any habits, but it strikes more instances when there is industry preferably of waiting. Just start fiction and you’ll have more creative article ideas.
What Is Freelance Blogging?
Posted on Jun 4, 2009 08:10:24 AM
Blogging (short for “web logging”), born from the Internet age, is one of the newer venues for freelance writing. The Internet has generated a lot of news about the financial possibilities open to bloggers: an audience of potentially millions — along with possible corporate sponsorship, a byline, and infinite creative control — captures the imagination of many prospective bloggers, and makes blogging seem like an infinitely desirable, lucrative field.
The truth is it is much more difficult to become a successful freelance blogger. A good knowledge of marketing, web design, and being consistent are skills you need to make a living (or a comfortable extra income) from this new form of media.
The reason for this is the low barrier of entry. Anyone with access to web space can start a blog. Sites like Blogger, Livejournal and even MySpace offer free web space to anyone willing to sign up. This has resulted in millions of blogs in existence today, many of them literate, many of them wildly popular, and nearly all of them free to read and browse.
That variety of free content makes it difficult to charge for access to your writing, no matter how good it is. You could be the greatest expert on foreign policy or nutrition known to man, and few people would be willing to pay $5 — or $1, or one cent — to read a blog post by you, the expert, when there are thousands of semi-qualified (but bright and engaging) writers giving away similar material.
So your main sources of revenue are going to come from advertising and from whatever paid content you can fit into the site. Luckily, web advertising is becoming less dicey than it was a year ago. Google’s “AdSense” program is a good baseline for a page, providing targeted advertising based on your content and paying you, directly, per click-through (although the pay rate per click is low.) You can supplement that amount with other forms of web advertising, from the comparatively unobtrusive banner to pop-up animations that “float over” the text.
This brings us to the “double-edged sword” problem in web advertising. The most effective advertising is obtrusive advertising; that is, advertising that blocks valuable content until the user clicks on it either to make it disappear or to take you to a different website. However, obtrusive advertising also irritates your readers, which can lead to a lower reputation for your blog overall. On the Internet, reputation is the single best determinant of your web traffic. Using obtrusive advertising can significantly lower your traffic and make your blog that much less attractive to potential advertisers.
So you’ll need to find a happy medium between heavy advertising (and light traffic) and little to no advertising (and high traffic, but little revenue.) Luckily, the instant responsiveness of the Internet, along with the commenting features available on nearly all blogging software, make it easy to ask your readers about exactly what level of advertising they’d be willing to accept. Reader connectivity is one of the most important features of any good blog: not only does it allow you to fine-tune your blog over time, eliminating features that readers find irritating or off-putting, but it also allows you to develop personal connections with your readers, the kind of connections that build loyal audiences.
There are other ways to make money by blogging, such as the following:
1) It’s possible to sidestep advertising altogether by making some of your content unavailable, except to subscribers. For example, you might only keep your most recent five or six blog entries unlocked, and require a monthly subscription fee to read the rest of the archives;
2) Or you might keep your current posts and your entire regular archives active, but produce some longer or specialized entries or other content and charge a set fee for these;
3) You could even compile some of your best entries into a physical book, along with some new content, and offer it for sale. Even if all the entries are available online, you’d be surprised how many people are willing to pay to have something they can hold in their hands;
4) Additionally, you could go the Salon.com route — make all of your archives available to anyone willing to watch a short full-screen advertisement — or you could rely on readers’ willingness to support content that they find worthwhile by asking for donations outright.
Many prominent blogs and online content providers have done this and found themselves able to make rent and pay all of their bills every month on donations alone.
No matter how much advertising or subscription services your blog has, it’s all worthless if people don’t want to read you in the first place. And there are three simple rules to make your blog popular:
1) Write on something you care about
2) Write consistently and thoughtfully on a regular schedule (daily is best)
3) Read and comment on other blogs
People read blogs because they provide a source of information and analysis on topics that traditional media sources only cover sketchily and hastily, or don’t cover at all. Don’t try to figure out an ideal money-making blog topic and proceed from there. People care about blogs because blogs are about personal, in-depth viewpoints and thoughts.
If you can provide those to your audience regularly, and you can set up a minimally-intrusive but still worthwhile revenue system through advertising or subscriptions, there’s no reason why you can’t become a successful blogger.
What Everybody Ought To Know About Creative Writing And Being A Professional Writer
Posted on May 30, 2009 03:58:00 PM
There are many people trying to be a writer. They keep practicing—which is good—but sometimes they are lack of guidance. Thus, their goal to be a professional writer gradually deteriorates.
This must not happen if one has made a decision to be a writer. When there is a strong will, there’s a way.
To avoid your will from fading away, here are some tips that you can try doing:
• Join writing clubs
By joining this club, you meet many people having the same goal or at least hobby with you. You can share ideas, talk about your script, discuss details about it such as your writing style, setting, plot or characters. Gathering with these people helps you strengthen your motivation and desire to be a writer and one thing for sure, you’ll get as much support you need.
• Participate in some creative writing workshops
Joining the workshop, you will be trained to work on your writing in better ways. You will be experimenting a lot with words and writing style. This of course enhances your skill. Speakers or instructors in workshops are mostly professional writers. That way, you can learn a lot from their experiences which normally are shared during the course. And, these writers certainly will reveal some useful tips about writing and how to have your script published.
• Open up
As a writer, you should be like a thick notebook, ready to be filled in with experiences, emotions, happenings and other things that can deepen your collections of resources for your writings. Also, learn from experienced writers. Read their biography to get more inspiration.
• Believe that there is no such thing like writer’s block
Some writers stop writing by using these words, writer’s block, as an excuse. They keep saying that they don’t know how to continue the story. So what? Write another story, then. Make a new one and put aside the old one. The point is, you need to keep writing no matter what. You can always go back to the old one, anyway.
• Enjoy it
Things are easier when you enjoy it. Even if you plan that it’s going to be your profession, it doesn’t mean that you have no right to enjoy it.
Keep learning. Writing is a process of learning.
What Is Freelance Seo Writing?
Posted on May 28, 2009 02:59:53 PM
SEO writing is one of the newer forms of freelance writing spawned by the Internet Age, and as such, SEO writing is an excellent way — if at times a frustrating way — for budding writers to cut their teeth in the freelance writing scene. SEO writing takes a fair amount of imagination and some engineering grit, but if you like puzzles, then freelancing as an SEO writer will interest you.
SEO, or “Search Engine Optimization,” has its roots in the early days of the Internet. Once early Internet marketers realized they could manipulate search engine rankings with meaningless content and keywords, a whirlwind of keyword-stuffed web pages swept across the Internet, all designed to push their content — and the products they sold — to the top of search engine lists. This sharply increased user traffic and potential profits. It wasn’t uncommon to see web pages with only a few short paragraphs of copy with large, seemingly-blank areas of space. However, if you highlighted these blank areas of space with a cursor, it would reveal massive strings of invisible keywords. SEO writers used to embed invisible keywords in text to rank the webpage higher in search engines for nearly any remotely-relevant search term.
Fortunately for good web design, search engine programmers became aware of this flaw, and they refined their search engines to ignore such obvious “keyword stuffing.” This major change has made search engines rank web pages more relevant of the actual content and not the stuffed keywords. Content providers responded to this by developing SEO writing, which ideally gets the same results as open keyword-stuffing, but provides a better-designed, better-written page as well. It’s a “best of both worlds” compromise: content providers willing to invest in SEO writing get to keep their high search engine rankings and readers get more smoothly integrated and keyword-dense text.
There are bad SEO writers and good SEO writers. Bad SEO writers aren’t aware of exactly how search engines work, and will try stuffing text with ten or twenty commonly-used search terms (“sex,” “money,” and the like) ten or twenty times apiece, without caring whether the actual text reads well. These days search engines are sophisticated enough to ignore these kinds of transparent keyword-stuffing efforts, a defense which only good SEO practice can get around.
A skilled SEO writer:
- Uses only one or two search terms per page;
- Uses unique, natural-language search terms;
- Integrates search terms smoothly with text;
The difference between a good and bad SEO writer are in the results. Good SEO writers can provide actual results in the search rankings. Their SEO writing talents keep the client’s web pages on the first page of search engine results and create additional revenue for the client. Bad SEO writers don’t keep client pages in the first page of search engine results; they create nearly unreadable, transparently phony text, and don’t get paid well at all. If you want to succeed as a freelance SEO writer, you first need to learn to be a good one.
Writing integrated text is often the most difficult part of good SEO writing. The rule is you should use each search term once or twice in a 250-word block of copy. This is fine if your search term is something like “bond portfolio,” but what do you do if your search term is more like “high-yield gold investment bond package bonds”? This is where the “puzzle” aspect of SEO writing comes in: no matter how cumbersome your search term, you need to find a way to make it sound natural.
Skilled SEO writers employ some tricks for awkward keyword phrases, such as the following:
- Enclosing the search term in quotes (making it seem like a precise technical term, rather than just clunky phrase); and
- Defining the term at the opening of the article and using it further on, or drawing comparisons between two SEO terms (requiring you to refer to both frequently).
There aren’t any hard-and-fast rules to integrate keywords effectively; every keyword set is different and every article has different needs. But with imagination, you can get your prose to read naturally while still being SEO-worthy. Just remember the other principal rule: don’t overstuff keywords in text, but rather space your keywords adequately throughout the text.
Who offers SEO writing jobs? Virtually any company with enough money and enough willingness to maintain a high web presence. Be careful of the keyword lists you take on. Generally speaking, if the client has a long keyword list and he needs many keywords in his text, then most search engines will rank his webpage low and you may not be able to achieve the results he wants. To establish yourself as a freelance SEO writer (and to get some much needed practice in SEO writing), you’ll probably need to take some of these jobs at some point. Take a look on freelance writing message boards, in classified ads, and make inquiries at local businesses who either have a web presence, or who you think are ready to develop one. Chances are excellent that companies with new websites can use a skilled SEO writer.
Keep at it, learn the tricks, and remember that SEO writing is a very in-demand skill. Once you build a reputation for yourself, you can command both higher prices and higher-profile (yet easier) assignments regularly.
Seven Useful Tips To Ghostwrite Books For Clients As A Freelance Writer
Posted on May 12, 2009 12:52:19 PM
Serious freelance writers know their income may come from other sources, not just writing articles for magazines or clients. Ultimately, their freelance writing leads to writing books or e-books for themselves or as ghostwrites. If you decide to ghostwrite e-books and trade paperbacks for clients, consider the following:
If a client hires you as a “work-for-hire” ghostwriter, then the client pays you for your work, and he owns all rights. Make sure: 1) You receive a 50% retainer before you begin the work; and 2) You receive the balance at or right before delivery. That’s it. If the book turns out to be a great success, great! That’s wonderful! You should be extremely proud — but from a distance! To be a successful ghostwriter, you must enjoy your glory as a ghostwriter in the shadows. Many ghostwriters prefer it that way.
I know a great speaker in the industry who commands $10,000 or more per speaking engagement. He is phenomenal to listen to and even more dynamite to read. However, he doesn’t write his books alone. He contributes to them but he never writes any of them himself. His ghostwriter, Shelly, is known only to a few writers in a close-knit writer’s group. Why does Shelly let this speaker take all the glory for her work? She is painfully shy and exceedingly talented as a writer. She once said, “I am where I need to be and he is where he should be.” If you are going to ghostwrite, stay where you belong (invisible) and accept payment for the job as payment enough.
TIP #1: As a ghostwriter, you should always try to meet the needs of the true “author” of the work. Cover the content they want and do your best to make the client happy.
TIP #2: As with writing any book, ghostwriting involves lot of revisions and changes as far out as two months, especially if the book needs to go through an editor or publisher. You should make changes as needed. However, don’t wait on final payment if your client hasn’t received final approval from his publisher.
TIP #3: Always write your ghostwrites as if they are your own. Write with quality and professionalism in mind.
TIP #4: Never sign a non-compete contract on the subject of the book. It is crazy for the client to ask but crazier for you to do it. If a client asks for one, walk away. You have your own work to protect as well as the client’s work. Remember the saying, “to thine own self be true”? Well, in writing, there’s no truer statement.
TIP #5: You owe the client exceptional work and the client you work for owes you money for a job well done.
TIP #6: If your client is dissatisfied with the end result, even after he’s paid you, make it right for the client. Satisfied clients usually become repeat clients; they will bring you steady work and referrals.
TIP #7: Consider using a pen name as a ghostwriter. Jeanine Anne, a freelance writer and ghostwriter, said she uses a pen name when she ghostwrites. She said, “I’ve written most of my ghostwrites and presented them to my clients under my pen name, Jeanine Anne. First, if someone decides to spam me, there’s no harm done to the name for which I write my own work under. Secondly, when I write for a client, I have no idea what the client will do to the work, after all it is his work once it leaves my hands. The client may add content which I may not like or he may write something that is not my style of writing.” This is something to remember if you write for clients as ghostwrites. The client hires you to do a job and the client owns the work after it leaves your hands.
You can find many ghostwriting gigs on .FreelanceWriting.com, Elance.com, Guru.com, GetAFreelancer.com, Indeed.com, .WritingCareer.com, and CraigsList.com. The other way is to create your own ghostwriting gigs by networking and marketing.
The Gift Of Writer’s Block
Posted on Apr 29, 2009 09:31:40 AM
Anyone who writes knows this scenario at one time or another: You have something to say, great ideas to express. So, you go to the page only to find your mind has gone as blank as the sheet or screen before you. Paralyzed, you write not a word. Somewhere in the synapses of your imagination, you know there lives a fully formed novel, or story, or play, or even one single poem, but you cannot magnify it enough to see the individual words. So you leave it for another day…until your vision is clearer, until inspiration strikes and reveals all 350 pages of text, all 36 lines of poetry. Until the writer’s block is gone.
Sometimes inspiration does strike from out of the blue, and words pour down like rain. Ideas synthesize, fingers fly and Voila! You’ve created a masterpiece…or at least a pretty good piece of work.
But such strikes of inspiration are not, for most of us, the norm. Writing takes commitment, and good writing takes practice.
Still, what about writer’s block?
Even when your diligent with your practice, even when you show up day after day, you’re not immune from block, from finding yourself without two words that make any sense. What then?
First, shift your perspective on what writer’s block is. It’s easy to panic, to believe it means you’ll never write again, that you have no real talent or that you have nothing worthwhile to say. But none of these is near the truth.
Writer’s block is not the lack of skill or worthiness as a writer…it is, instead, a signifier revealing one of two things:
• There is a truth you are not yet ready to tell
• There is something more that needs to be learned or experienced before the ideas can be fully crystallized
When you write you cannot help but come up against and touch upon your own inner sore spots and the edges of your comfort zones. To write deeply you must delve inside of and push against these, stretching, questioning and seeing more and more clearly. The truths you tell yourself are the markers that guide you through. When you come to a place you are not yet ready to go, to words you are not yet ready to say or to something that is not yet in focus…you get stuck. Willingness to face the wall, to approach it with patience, compassion, trust and honesty, is the way through it. There is no way around it. Your blocks are gifts that push you to grow, to break through the hard places to reach fertile ground.
Let me share an example to explain. When I was writing my novel, I found myself going in circles around a primary relationship in the story…one between the main character and her mentor/teacher. I would talk about the teacher, but I couldn’t dive into the center of her role in the novel, most specifically I couldn’t find ANY words to put in her mouth. As long as she didn’t speak, I was okay. But that was a problem. There came a point when I could no longer keep her mute. She had to speak. But every time I tried, I ended up sitting in front of the screen, hands poised and my insides twisting in frustration.
Finally, I decided to get up and move. I went for a walk, and as my limbs fell into rhythm my mind fell into the story. The dialogue played out in my head. Away from the computer, I could have a conversation with the characters; I could get inside them and hear what they wanted to say.
On that walk it occurred to me that I had been unable to claim the voice of the mentor before then because I had not been able to claim her within my own being. Whenever the story demanded she speak, I would feel the panic of putting on paper what was being shared as wisdom. Who was I to say such things? Who was I to be the voice of wisdom? But just realizing what was “blocking” me, what I needed to learn, freed me. And along the way I opened doorways to my own growth.
When feeling “blocked” take a walk. Let your body move and your mind ease and flow. Ask yourself what you might fear in the work you are doing…what truth you are not yet ready to claim or tell. And know that we cannot always control the readiness of things. Time teaches us and directs our understanding, and our understanding directs the depth and breadth of our writing. Be patient with yourself. And keep writing.
What Is Freelance Magazine Writing?
Posted on Apr 22, 2009 07:10:51 PM
Freelance magazine writing can be one of the most rewarding careers available to a freelance writer. Successful magazine writers are articulate, have a wide variety of interests, and know how to research a topic. Many freelance magazine writers write for various magazines, not just one, and like to write on diverse topics and sell their articles to a variety of magazines and media outlets.
The key to writing for magazines and selling what you write is knowing your market. Most magazines focus on a fairly narrow range of content. One magazine might deal with the finer points of horse grooming. Another magazine might focus on the ins and outs of toy robot collection. And yet another might cover the beauties and travel opportunities available in Bali.
This degree of specialization means that magazine editors usually have a specific idea of what articles they’re seeking, sometimes even down to a specific writing style or voice. Since magazines typically cater to a “niche” audience of educated readers, you’ll need to write well-written and interesting articles; your articles will have to feel new to an established audience. If you’re writing for a parasailing magazine, then submitting a 500-word article about the basics of parasailing just won’t do.
You have two options to write salable articles. The first is to become deeply involved with the activities or topics which the magazine covers. If you’re planning to write and sell travel articles about Germany, take at least one trip to Germany. If you’re planning to write and sell articles about cat care, spend a few days with a cat yourself (or find a knowledgeable, cat-owning friend who’s willing to give you some good, real-life information).
Writing magazine articles is a form of journalism, and often adheres to the same standards of quality and truthfulness. Would you trust a news article about declining air and water standards in a nearby town if you could tell the writer had never set foot in that town? Of course not.
Unfortunately, most of us don’t have time to take on an entirely new hobby. That’s why the second way is usually the best option: write about what you know. We’re all complicated people. We all have stories to tell. We enjoy hobbies and activities that fascinate us. We can easily uncover material for a hundred or more articles. So think about what you can write about, and what interests you. It seems hard at first, but once you sit down and start thinking about it, the article ideas will flow. Once you have your article ideas and have written articles about what you know, start looking around for magazines that might be willing to buy them. Chances are good there’s a magazine covering your interests or hobbies.
How do you find suitable magazines, and how do you ask if editors are interested? There are many ways to find appropriate publishing venues for your articles. For one, you could go to your local bookstore and search the magazine racks. If you have an independent bookstore in your area, so much the better: you may find some titles that don’t circulate at the larger chains. You can also take advantage of Writer’s Market, which list pertinent information about hundreds of magazines, including typical rates and what editors seek.
Once you’ve picked your magazine, send the editor a query letter about your article. This should be short and sweet, briefly stating who you are, your previous publication history (editors like to work with proven successes–wouldn’t you?), and your article topic. The length, topic and addressee of your query letter will depend on the magazine; you can usually find information on submissions policies in the “credits” section or on the magazine’s website.
Send off your query letter and wait. Be prepared, as well, for rejection. There are many reasons editors won’t take an article, and few of them have to do with your skills as a writer. If you get a rejection letter, just take a few minutes to mourn before starting on your next article. The hardest sale to make is always your first sale; keep up a steady stream of good, well-marketed work, and the sale will come. When it does, pat yourself on the back; you’re on your way to freelancing as a magazine writer!
What Is Freelance Copy Editing?
Posted on Apr 14, 2009 08:54:36 AM
People interested in other freelance writing careers usually look upon copy editing with disdain. Copy editing doesn’t involve attention to the actual structure of a piece, they say, and involves little research and fact-chasing necessary to create a lively, memorable article or story. However, copy editing carries its own unique challenges; such as:
1) you need to pay careful attention to the basic mechanics of writing; and
2) you need to pay attention to accuracy, both in facts and in language.
Freelance copy editing isn’t just a simpler offshoot of freelance writing in general, but an important discipline in its own right — and a rewarding one.
To become a successful copy editor you need to know how to use style guides. With some exceptions, editors of newspapers, magazines, and other print publications require you to write in a homogeneous style, both to compensate for writers with occasionally sloppy spelling and usage and to ensure consistent terminology over time. (This is important with newspapers: the names of foreign leaders, organizations, and other foreign-language nouns are often subject to variant spellings.)
The most commonly used style guides include AP (Associated Press), MLA (Modern Language Association), and Chicago. Any budding freelance copy editor would do well to own a copy of each of these, and to become familiar with their use before applying for jobs. Prospective employers will not hire copy editors who lack knowledge of style guides. Use a product like StyleEase software to help with style.
Fact checking is another prime skill for copy editors, as it is a publication’s first line of defense against accusations of libel or misrepresentation. Fact-checking is a simple procedure: call the author of the article, ask for his or her sources, and, if warranted, call the sources directly to confirm quotes or statistics. Different publications will have different procedures for fact-checking, all of which should be explained when you take a job.
Beyond that, all that it takes to become a successful copy editor is a sensitivity to cumbersome phrasing, grammar, and spelling, as well as a sensitivity to an author’s personal style. Many novice copy editors take a far too forceful approach to their work, effectively rewriting a reporter or other writer’s article for them in line with style guides and their own ideas about what makes good writing. This isn’t the function of a copy editor. Yes, clarity, grammar, and other issues with writing mechanics are all important, but a writer’s ego is important as well, and a too-free hand in the editing process can alienate a publication’s staff reporters and foster general enmity.
Since rewriting someone’s article causes you more additional work as well, why would you want to do it? Instead, just try to achieve sufficient clarity while leaving as much of the original article “as-is” as you can. If there are any substantial portions of text that inhibit clarity or exhibit serious mechanical errors, talk to the writer personally before making any changes. Yes, it’s an extra step, but one that ensures professional respect in the workplace.
If you don’t want to work for a publication, there are plenty of opportunities available for freelance copy editing, both for corporations and for private individuals. Educational publications, in particular, are always looking for good copy editors, and book publishers and literary journals always have a few spots available. You can find out about these opportunities through classified ads, or by making inquiries directly to the company. There’s typically a lot of competition in these sorts of jobs, so a solid interview technique and some excellent samples are mandatory for securing work. Once you have your foot in the door, though, corporate copy editing can provide a stable — if occasionally dull — source of income.
Copy editing projects offered by individuals are another option, and one which can bring you a more varied body of work and a much more informal attitude toward style guides and format restriction. But this option carries with it some heavy caveats. Often, copy editing projects given by individuals amount to ghostwriting without appropriate compensation, and pay rates can be sketchy as well, ranging from low to nonexistent (with a promise of “resume experience,” maybe.) Although when work is consistent, low pay isn’t necessarily a problem, individuals can rarely guarantee a sufficient volume of work to ensure your livelihood and a decent career.
Before you accept individual copy editing projects, make sure that you know how much you’ll need to make per hour to make the project financially worthwhile (as well as an estimate on how many hours the project will take), and don’t accept less than that hourly rate. You may get less work with this approach, but clients won’t rip you off either — an important consideration for professional copy editors.
Copy editing is a good, low-stress writing job, enjoyable on its own merits or as practice for other freelance writing goals down the line. You can succeed as a freelance copy editor if you familiarize yourself with style guides, and have a good grasp of grammar, spelling, and style usage.