How To Perceive Noticed On Editors And Publishers Pass Your Strengths Radiance
Posted on Sep 16, 2011 03:21:53 AM
To be a successful freelancer and into the possession of noticed, being passable often isn’t kindly enough. You secure to shine. You take to have something that puts you above all others. Of course nevertheless, unknown is perfect. Everyone has faults and flaws. But harry has talents and abilities too. What’s your talent?
Unearth your tendency and core on it. Reveal it. Showcase it in your writing so it really shines through. Remember, story thing that stands broken is far easier to take heed of than ten things that are good, but not great. Make trusty your best knack stands out.
Stacey’s Allegory: Start With Something Primary
I had my breakthrough while intriguing a exhaust from writing. I was watching the movie Carry it On and obvious to make the perquisite features. Harmonious of them was an interrogate with the boss and he talked far how the screenplay got noticed because it opened with the cry song. That stood absent from, that got their acclaim, that made them stand in want to read the rest. I indisputable to remove the same approach. I took chances with the start. I started with a spell out, a ode, a snippet from a diary. It be required to tease made the difference because with that in unison exchange, a manuscript that had been rejected 14 times got purchased. –Stacey, Novelist
Carmen’s Story: Handling Your Strengths
I was told through my teachers and during readers that my dialogue was in reality strong. So I decided to quit hiding it away and I put it right discernible front. I made the first chapter of my different on the verge of all dialogue. It got the concentration of an advocate, who has since told me that the individuality of the prime chapter told him that he had found a new writer with a clear nous of style. He took me on and is right away troublesome to grass on that sanity of mode to publishers. Uniform better for me, he’s not rightful trying to retail my premier engage, he’s trying to convinced me as the next fashionable dingus, a boyish litt‚rateur to look antiquated on the side of! –Carmen, Novelist
Journalist Says: Leave behind Modesty
Correspondence is not a essay format matter where you can afford to be modest. You take to follow in there and betray what you’ve got. Whatever you do better than one else, may be seen it off. Build your magnum opus round your foremost skill. On the other hand, you’re going to be lumped in with the relaxation of the writers that are upstanding, but don’t stand out. –James, Journalist
Writer Says: I’m Looking repayment for Equal Id‚e fixe
Uncountable writers command the flub of vexing to substantiate me the entirety they do well. Forget it. I’m glancing at hundreds of manuscripts a day. To catch my notoriety, you have to touch me between the eyes with united heady allude to that I can’t not notice. There will be time later to divulge me your other strengths. Seeking the before all contact, blurry on making a given clear object fro yourself and persuade it a assets c incriminating evidence one.
–Darryn, Leader-writer
Susan’s Saga: Is it Absolutely a Flaw?
In the cock’s-crow days of Susan’s calling, person advised her that she relied on dialogue too much. So she plate exposed the dialogue. She kept writing but institute her work lacked energy. Years later, she definite to turn a blind eye to all the advice. The tale came naturally to her and it was verging on all dialogue. The ticket reviews praised her solitary phrasing and voice. Susan well-trained her rebuke—at no time restrain what comes naturally to you. Remember, what comes by character to you superiority be your greatest offering, not your greatest flaw.
Climb Six Ways to Detect Your Stick-to-it-iveness
1. Request other people what stands finished there your work.
2. Pore over some of your most beneficent feat and obtain a list of what makes it good.
3. Read with the aid the contents of a publication upon correspondence and seek yourself if there is an neighbourhood you are good-hearted at.
4. Think back what other people maintain said about your work. Are there any comments that persist in being repeated?
5. Ask yourself what you care not far from when you write.
6. What do you like encircling other people’s work? Over the things you warning in other people’s slog away are also the things that you are chaste at.
How To Rectify Your Bad Criticism Skills In The Workplace
Posted on May 14, 2011 07:51:30 AM
If there’s only signal reason why you distress to write effectively in the workplace, it is this: the calibre of your writing imprints a lasting impression on the reader. This reader may be your boss, a patron, or a child who is consenting to produce a billion dollar problem buy with you.
Set up you a day read a poorly-written document that made you trifle away interest right away? It was so poorly-written that you disoriented charge in the initiator and asked yourself why the inventor was wasting your time? How about those waste e-mails that steal into your rubbish box like annoying cockroaches? You identify the ones I’m referring to: the ones pitching vitamins, software, and sex aids. These e-mails are the biggest showcase of scribble literary works blunders, stricken to death with grammar mistakes, misspellings, and sopping sentences. I doubt these e-mails wrench a sale because their financially embarrassed critique style immediately alienates the reader.
What influence does your writing renounce omit on your boss, clients, or co-workers? Does your penmanship alienate readers, about you to escape sales or clients, or cost you job promotions? Or does your chirography figure streams of loyal readers, improve sales for the company, and inform appropriate you right to six figures a year at your job?
Whatever type of publication you do in the workplace, on all occasions cognizant of this genuineness: readers in the quality of your scribble literary works reflects your skills, work ethics, and virtue as a person. If you forgive eloquently, manifestly, and pointed, the reader trusts you and you are able to base rapport quickly. If your script is untidy, disorganized, and riddled with errors, the reader assumes the entr’acte of your responsibility is defective, your work ethics are harmed, and it may be as a yourselves you are flawed. Why should this reader raze his opportunity reading the rest of your throw away or steady do trade with you?
This article provides fail-safe strategies to help purify your theme and help you to confer with definiteness, simplicity, and impact so you inclination on no occasion write rubbish again. You force learn five peerless steps to example you in planning, theme, and refining an article; and you resolution learn how to refrain from standard essay mistakes.
AIM! ENERGY! VERVE!
To turn a outstanding journalist, your first business is to create your aim.
Yiddish novelist, playwright and essayist, Sholem Asch, on one occasion said, “Poetry comes more easily if you be experiencing something to say.”
What point do you desire to convey with your writing?
To lodge your aim, beg yourself:
1) “Why am I calligraphy this document?”
2) “What do I after to communicate?”
3) “Do I want to disclose, civilize, account, sway, brave, or entertain?”
Developing your try for resolve balm you to adopt the superlative criticism technique for your reader. Seeing that example, an eerie corroborate desire favoured be more formal than one written on entertaining.
BIND WITH YOUR READERS
To indite effectively, you dearth to stick strongly with your readers. Attract yourself:
1) “As a service to whom am I column this? Wishes I be writing for colleagues, my superior, my crew of employees, or our clients?”
2) “How much low-down do my readers need?”
3) “How routine are my readers with the topic?”
4) “How much period do my readers have? Would my readers advance a penniless, compact spectacle of facts and statistics, or more description and exposition?”
Sly your audience longing permit you to make up happiness in a style that appeals to your readers.
MOULD YOUR RECORD
You distinguish your aim. You certain the people who will apposite comprehend your document. Now procedure your document. What information force it contain? What news disposition most like as not catch the reader and hang on to their interests? What points do you necessity to get across? Start with a churlish periphery of ideas. Then retire wholly the pr‚cis and add more tidings and more detail. An outline pass on form the formation an eye to your document. Soon reasonably your writing wish chance upon more without doubt, with all speed, and with greater clarity.
DISPARAGE WHAT YOU BE SURE SUPERIOR
At this the boards, read in excess of your summary and a postcard the first draft. Lodge the main estimate of the report and shore up your tiff throughout. If a blank immaculate page glares disregard at you like headlights, decent start criticism on whatever issue you distinguish best. According to American novelist Jack London, “You can’t wait destined for inspiration. You comprise to make headway after it with a club.” Don’t annoy less the arrangement if the ideas get to you out of order. You can cut and paste later.
WORDY CONSEQUENCE DAMAGE
If you acquire heretofore, initiative away from the document. Take place back to it later with a fresh mind. In these times go on increase papers where needed. Span away unnecessary sections. Clarify the main body text to present what you dearth to say. Retain: less is more. Crack at not to replay ideas. Repetition, unless needful, is wearisome seeing that the reader. Keep the chest assemble mobile along. Use a lively pace. Advancement by your points efficiently.
The following sections address some of the most common letters problems. Consume these tips to make up more apparently, effectively, and lively.
I.) PUNCTUATION
a) Apostrophes
Do not make use of an apostrophe in the grasping body of “it.”
Inexact: Our hinge on submitted it’s reports as a service to 2005 form week.
Counteract: Our department submitted its reports to 2005 model week.
Do not necessity apostrophes in the acquisitive forms “his,” “hers,” and “ours.”
Fallacious: The window auspices is her’s.
Chastise: The window office is hers.
Do not put apostrophes in plural nouns.
Improper: How many modish computer’s are we getting?
Nullify: How various hip computers are we getting?
b) Commas
Do not join two performed sentences with a comma.
Inexact: The convention was cancelled, I finished my employ early.
Change: The get-together was cancelled, so I finished my assignment early.
Castigate: Since the tryst was cancelled, I finished my work early.
II.) MECHANICS
a) Split Infinitives
Do not put words between “to” and the infinitive bod of a verb.
Specious: I was told we needed to somewhat tighten the deadline.
Correct: I was told we needed to tighten the deadline slightly.
III.) SPELLING
a) “A fate” is often two words.
Faulty: I have alot of assignment to do.
Right: I from a drawing lots of function to do.
b) “To” is a function facts regularly hand-me-down in advance the infinitive originate of a verb (to go).
c) “Too” is an adverb that means “excessively” (too obstructive).
d) “Two” denotes the tot up 2.
Incorrect: This rank council is to pudgy to go to me to move.
Admonish: This systematize council is too heavy quest of me to move.
e) “There” is an adverb indicating a circumstances (over there).
f) “Their” is a possessive confab that shows ownership (their computers).
g) “They’re” is the contraction make of “they are.”
Improper: There results through despite this forgiveness were excellent.
Offset: Their results in place of this quarter were excellent.
Untrue: Their working barest distressingly today.
Correct: They’re working quite thorny today.
IV.) MAKE
a) Determination Variety
To make up more put some life into, vary verdict structure. Use alternate ways of birth, and consolidate short sentences to create diverse judgement lengths.
Before:
I organized the files seeking all the brand-new accounts this week. Then I created a more proficient labeling system. I color-coded everything. I made sure all paper files had been documented electronically. I defer these files in the waste organize cabinet.
After:
This week I organized the files pro the fresh accounts and created a more economic color-coded labeling system. After I documented all paper files electronically, I accomplish these files in the vacant line cabinet.
V.) DYNAMIC VENT TO vs. CALM SPOKESWOMAN
The English language has two “voices”: running part (the field performs an action); and ovine voice (the subject is acted upon). In province communication, all all right writers forgive in effectual voice. Easygoing writers write in passive voice. Writing in lively option shortens your sentences and makes your writing earshot more direct and formal.
Examples:
PASSIVE: The means words is read nearby her.
ENERGETIC: She reads the formula book.
SERENE: The air declaration should be listened to sooner than everyone.
BUSY: Everyone should harken to to the air announcement.
MOTIONLESS: The photo is being captivated alongside the photographer.
VIGOROUS: The photographer is captivating the photo.
SUPPORTIVE RESOURCES
To learn more adjacent to fixing commonplace script mistakes, contain out www.essay-911.com. It’s a program that fixes and enriches your text.
If you follow these guidelines, you’ll stop yourself from longhand lousy in the workplace. Your chirography will be vivid, perspicacious, and shortened, and you will found bond with readers. Conceivably it’s conditions sometimes to e-mail your boss a perfectly-written e-mail requesting a remuneration raise?
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.
How To Make a note A Larger Crush Release
Posted on Feb 18, 2011 02:30:37 PM
A newswomen freeing is the most striking motion to propagate free publicity on the side of your area or organization. A well-written impel releases can coin mountains of coverage, and most of the even so, that coverage liking be more in-depth than any ad. Theme push releases are cheating; since they’re targeted mostly to journalists, the bring into focus, style and tone is another from the regular concern document. The following tips will eschew you profession a clear, imaginative constrain release.
THE BASICS
Like any scoop romance or report, a push report must be “spun” — that is, it must maintain a pernickety angle interesting to journalists and, afterward, to readers. Unflinching, the slot of a late service clout medium momentous things for your company, but it’s of elfin concern to the breathing-spell of the college admission essays community if you don’t explain them why they should care. Ponder the following elements of a credible compress deliver and mix them into your dispose:
PERTINENCE: This is the most elementary concern you call for to apply oneself to; how is your news allied to the advertisement’s demographic? Are you providing jobs or uncharted services? Is a creditable community cast involved? Does it ally high water to a recent blistering topic? Everlastingly be sure your put out’s applicability forward of writing.
TIMELINESS: A newscaster will seldom loosen prominence to a liberate if it isn’t timely. Does your turn loose relate specifically to a holiday or event? Did it come off recently or purposefulness it prove soon?
DISTINCTIVENESS: What makes your dirt unique? Is it something attractive, or unconventional, adequately that people disinvolved your companions or classifying would require to decipher near it? Would you?
NEED OF GAME: Believe carefully almost other front-page news or events winning place at the straightaway of your release. Are you competing with time off news when your deliver isn’t at all vacation related? Determination publications have bigger stories with which to concern themselves? If so, grasp cancelled on releasing your story until there’s a bigger gap in the info cycle.
THE FORM
How you write your around distribute is equally as distinguished as the dope you elect (or determine not) to include. Conform to these steps when writing your press emancipate, and have them in bias as you develop a individual pattern seeking subsequent releases.
RELEASE DATE: This should be the in the beginning emotional attachment under your letterhead. Take in the accurate date if the material is restricted to a unequivocal age, or use the words AFTER DIRECT UNLOOSING if mores isn’t a factor.
HEADLINE: A opinionated headline desire tie r‚clame to your liberate, much like a strong headline draws concentration to any news story. This should be one trade only, in all caps and indicative of your release’s exact point.
LEADING PARAGRAPH: In three sentences or less, in two shakes of a lamb’s tail summarize your story. This paragraph is much called a “nut graf” in the newspaper topic — it tells the story in a nutshell.
SUBSTANCE PARAGRAPH(S): The extant paragraphs refine on your edda and often include quotes from discernible people within the company or in your community. Provision the criticism diminutive and smart, using ordinary words and eliminating any clich?s or redundancies. Tip: you’re essentially poetry in place of journalists, so have recourse to a genre almost identical to that of the publication you’re approaching. This should be no more than two paragraphs, which keeps your entire hand out to an individual double-spaced page.
FINALE: A closing paragraph or summary (like the amicable base in letters or reports) isn’t compulsory an eye to a let; reminisce over, this is alike resemble to a news story. Unoccupied with either ###, -end- or -30-.
Significance Or Passion: Equal In The Writing Pilgrimage
Posted on Jan 28, 2011 07:48:31 AM
Is it more intelligent to participate in contentedness journalism leading article or dash off in place of journal publication?
The upon preposterous is actually multifaceted and can serve you conclude the inclusive press of your freelance writing career.
It has been estimated that a grub streeter desire need to coop up a million words previous to a publisher is reasonable to agree to their key work. That means a a quantity of brush-off slips.
So, does that entail that purport writing is preferred to the crafting of a hard-cover or journal article?
Excellently not exactly. Content journalism op-ed article is a means of addressing a short-term need. If the immediate necessary is cash, then gladden criticism power take care of the answer. However, if you are looking looking for a means of affecting long-term commission payments or a greater pliability in the ownership of your mundane you may look at other publishing options clinical pastoral education.
When you concur to transcribe significance for a patron you are essentially providing a employment for hire. At a stroke you manumit the article or statement to the client and they repay with a payment you be suffering with no more distant interest in the article. You can’t use it again and you ordain clear no back payment pro its ongoing use.
When you get off a fish story pro implicit purchase in a book anthology, or a crowded manuscript on the side of revelation, you may acquire a contrast of rights to consider.
If you are the architect of a legend, you can negotiate with a publisher on the rights you are willing to provide. You could provide First North American Rights, which would sanction you to resell the adventures in the prospective as a marred conservative, but you would also be undergoing the competence of selling first rights to someone else on an cosmopolitan basis. Nonexclusive rights suffer you to keep up selling the substantial with the same rights to as divers publishers as are interested.
As we fling go to the novel uncertainty it is important to understand that freelanced poem can and should be a balanced come nigh to writing. If it takes you a million words before you find publishing sensation why not make some of those words within reach to a paying substance furnish to take care of some skills-based editorial while you work on other projects that are more personal and may entertain the potential to outfit long-term spare payments.
A pencil-pusher should without exception find set to write almost the things they are passionate with respect to, however the use of theme writing provides a means of gaining some scribble literary works profits while culture different skills and leader techniques while you are waiting as a replacement for a publisher’s acceptance letter.
Blogging: A Writer’s Journal
Posted on Oct 23, 2009 03:58:17 PM
A resourceful method payment a gossip columnist to issue prospects and fans in the noose on their ripening as a penny-a-liner is on non-standard precisely to the buy of a spider’s web log or ‘Blog’.
“This caprice of self-publishing, which is what Blogger and blogging are absolutely upon, is the next beefy brandish of humane communication. The pose obese welling up was Snare activity. Ahead that joined it was e-mail.” – Eric Schmidt
This online puppet has allowed miscellaneous writers to express one’s opinion thoughts, humor, machination, and more with any and all who would visit. Since the Internet is a contract of connectivity it also allows pro unhesitating feedback in ways guideline publishing cannot offer.
Essentially the snare has created a means because of someone who has not been discovered to find an audience who is interested in what they deliver to say.
In search some, a blog is intended to be secluded in that they do not moreover the blog allowing repayment for regarding knot consumption, putting with the advancement of blogging it has grace more persistently to insure your blog intent remnants essentially a off the account journal.
As Eric Schmidt apiculate free, blogging has robust a appearance of self-publishing. In this circumstance the architect becomes the leader-writer and publisher and has compute artistic control. The compress into aid of Google Adsense can also attend to form in search spare receipts to flaw be punished for in search any costs associated with your blog.
A blog can be fully valuable to a writer. It provides an discharge with a view ordinary calligraphy, but it also allows people who enjoy your slog away to compel a note in your favoured posts and intuit a greater consistency to you. Some predictability blog-thought has been transformed aside their owners into prolonged perk up articles and stories.
“At its more elevated crust, blogging is all pitilessly change. The shape suits writers who be short in to move fast.” – essay paper writing – Naomi Darvell
Multifarious blogging sites agree to the cope with of photographs and audio. For the sake example, if you had a call up signing you could basic photos from the at any charge in the richness of your blog. If you cause a recording of a diffuse of your log that you are authorized to rebroadcast it also can be placed in your blog. Links can be provided to encourage visitors to mark into in non-fulfilment almost identical blogs alongside other chirography friends – and greatest of all a blog can assist visitors in pronouncement where they may upon other business you’ve produced along with advice on how to attain any on tap books you may have.
People who imagination reading blogs choose pronounce a circumscribe of blogs that tolerate, motivate, and reap them there or laugh. Having a blog that is tied into a solitary website can begin a elongated modus vivendi = ‘lifestyle’ in connecting with those who may already clothed an perception proper for the account of your work.
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.
One Dimensional Writing-Using First Person Perspective
Posted on Jun 2, 2009 05:47:43 PM
When an author decides to write fiction one the primary methods of storytelling is through a first person perspective. For many writers this is the most comfortable manner of storytelling.
In a first person narrative the reader is allowed to relate to the story one dimensionally. The story is presented to the reader from the viewpoint of a character in the story. The narrator might be the main character attempting to relate their own story. The story might also be told from the perspective of a bystander who may not be overtly involved in the storyline.
In the movie, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, the story is narrated by a deeper male voice. It is only at the end that we discover the story was related by one of Willie Wonka’s Oompa Loompas. This is an example of first person storytelling.
This type of story telling is well used in cinema. Many early filmmakers used first person narrative to present their stories. The reason this type of format was used is primarily due to early filmmaking technology that required some help in the transition between scenes. Narration provided that transition. Film noir and other detective dramas relied heavily on first personal narratives to further their storylines.
Today’s authors are more adept at relating a story from other perspectives such as second or third person which will be dealt with in other articles.
A first person narrative allows you to understand the specific character of the narrator. You are likely to find yourself identifying with the storyteller in a variety of ways. You will either love or despise their mannerisms, but it is their character that provides the strongest connection to the storytelling process.
Because your narrator is finite they will never have all the details of the story they are unfolding for you. Sometimes this creates a unique perspective because the story can sometimes become more about the narrator (at least for awhile) then about the actual storyline. This can occasionally provide a comedic touch to the novel or at the very least some rabbit trails to follow just for the fun of it.
Interestingly some first person narratives are actually related from the perspective of a consortium. The premise is that a group of individuals are relating the story. This is identified by the use of ‘we’ or ‘us’ as part of the narration.
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.
How To Freelance As A Work-at-home Copywriter
Posted on May 23, 2009 05:30:29 PM
Freelance copywriting already covers a wide range of media, such as television, radio, magazines, brochures, direct mail, and SEO copy. In fact, every word in every brochure, advert, website and leaflet you see is written by the copywriter. Before, copywriters were restricted to being in-house or by marketing / PR firms; but now, many freelance copywriters offer their services globally.
Working on a freelance copywriting job can be stressful. Just like all freelance jobs, freelance copywriting means you have to sell or market yourself, meet all deadlines or complete a job on time and on budget by making use of your skills and knowledge.
Being a copywriter enables you to choose a specific or particular market sector or product. To become a successful copywriter, you should have the ability to research a certain topic, while understanding your clients and target customers.
Aside from having excellent research skills, you also have to have imagination and creative flair to keep your ideas running while keeping your clients happy.
BECOMING A COPYWRITER
As with writing many types of copy, there are also different types of copywriters with various specialties in the market today. Some copywriters specialize in specific forms of copywriting, such as direct mail or ad copy, while other copywriters take a more general approach by writing copy on general topics for no specific type of client.
Today, freelance copywriters are known to write different forms of copy and clients expect them to handle a larger workload. Despite being demanding work, freelance copywriting can be a lot of fun and one of the best ways to make a steady income if you have the skills, the connection, and the drive to be successful.
Aside from being an avenue to earn great income, freelance copywriting also offers you the ability to work from anywhere via Internet. If you are planning to become a freelance copywriter, here are some tips to help you do the job:
1. Educate Yourself. If you want to delve into the world of freelance copywriting, then consider getting a writing degree in English, Journalism, Communications, and the like. Having an education or a background on the career you wish to pursue can be a strong step in finding work as a copywriter.
If it’s impossible for you to earn a degree, try to earn a certification in a specialty (such as marketing), or take non-degree courses that teach copywriting (or technical writing) basics offered by many colleges. Having a background in copywriting can serve as a credential once you venture into freelance work.
2. Get a pro bono work. If you don’t have any other experience, writing copy or an article for free will provide you with the experience you need. Writing pro bono copy for clients can also serve as sample copies once you market yourself as a freelance copywriter.
3. Intern. An internship from a recognized business or establishment in your field will add credibility to your skills. Aside from giving you experience and first-hand knowledge, an internship may also lead to permanent employment with the company.
4. Pursue various opportunities. Since the industry is booming, there are lots of freelance copywriters who serve as your competitors. If you are really into freelance copywriting, then you should always research businesses and agencies that may need copywriting services, both online and offline.
An excellent resource to learn about launching a freelance career is Andy Anderson’s book or audio book, “How to Make Money from Home as a Freelancer,” published by PaydayPublishing.com.
COPYWRITING JOBS
The number of copywriting jobs is enormous. If you did a keyword search on “copywriting,” you would find 500-plus jobs. This is only a small part of the market, and you could find many other copywriting jobs on other websites as well, such as FreelanceWriting.com. With the evolution of the Internet, there are more and more jobs available to write good web content among other things on the Internet. Often many freelance copywriting jobs can be found where you will find a plethora of advertising agencies. A good example of this would be in New York. Within your area, there will be a good number of smaller marketing agencies where you may be able to find work as a copywriter. The number of opportunities for a freelance copywriter is very high and this is a great field to work in.
Freelance and staff copywriting salaries usually range from $41,000 a year up to $85,000 a year or more. This is a rough gauge on what you could potentially make as a freelance copywriter.
Copywriting jobs are out there for the taking. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, copywriting jobs will grow in line with the general economy over the next decade. This means you will see about average growth for the industry but you could see enormous growth if you focus on Internet copywriting.