Journey of an Aspiring Freelance Writer

Time is of the Essence

2009-08-21T11:55:00.000-07:00

As I get ready to begin working full-time again, YAY, I am already thinking about how I will balance my time. Even though the full-time job I am going to be taking has nothing to do with writing, I want to continue trying to build my presence as a freelance writer. But with limited time I am going to have to be careful of avoiding some mistakes. Some of you may already be in this boat, or may be looking at having to be. Here are two things I intend on doing to hopefully keep my freelance dreams alive.

One of the mistakes that I will need to avoid is writing too quickly. With less time to dedicate to writing well thought out articles and posts, I am going to have to remember that time old adage of "quality vs. quantity". I will have to deal with writing less so that I can maintain the quality of what I write. By doing this, I will hopefully ensure that I will not hurt myself by putting sub par work out there for others to see. This will only hurt my chances. Plus, I am not the best writer in the world to begin with, so I do not need to add to my disadvantages by being sloppy.

Another one of the things I will need to do is begin focusing my writing more. What I mean by this is to not write about as many topics as I have been. By focusing my attention to a few topics, I can help ensure the quality of my writing as well. One of the ways I will choose which topics I will stick to is from what I have learned on ezinearticles.com. In an earlier post I talked about the benefit of being able to see how many views each independent article I have submitted generates. By taking this information I will narrow my topic selection by determining which topics will gain the most exposure. The next thing I will do to narrow the topic field is to stick with my strong points. My strong points are those topics that I have the most background and knowledge in. After taking these two things into consideration I will choose three topics and those will be the ones I will place my focus on from now on.

Hopefully by doing these two things, and a few other things I will write about later, I will be able to maintain what web presence I have created thus far. I will also be able to possibly increase that exposure as my writing skills and knowledge of the freelance world continues to grow.

To all you who are taking this journey with as a new freelance writer, keep your pens to the grindstone and never give up.

Context Matters to Content

2009-08-18T09:34:00.000-07:00

Getting your writing to be noticed by others does not merely consist of using good spelling, grammar and punctuation. It also involves context. Context in writing involves the things written before and after a particular part in order to give clarity to the reader. If a reader is unsure what you are referring to or what something in your article means, they will typically rely on what was said before and after to understand. That is why it is so important to be aware of what context you use in your writing. The wrong wording could change the entire meaning of an article to someone.

It is important to remember that when communication takes place, it always involves at least two people. This is no different for the freelance writer who is writing an article, blog, or anything else for that matter. With this blog my intention is to communicate my journey as a freelance writer. The communication takes place once someone else reads any of my posts. If you want what you write to communicate effectively then you must keep your topic focused, remember your audience and be careful how you use tone in your writing. All of these things will affect the context of what you write and invariably affect how people perceive your content.

Keep the context and content focused. If a historian is writing a piece for a text book on World War II, the focus can hold to any issues pertaining to the entire war. But if the historian is writing a piece on D-Day, then his/her focus becomes much more narrow. A writer must understand what they are wanting to write about and then stick to that topic. It would not serve my context or content in this post to begin talking about how I had barbecue ribs last night for supper. Nor would it serve any purpose for me to talk about where to submit articles either. To keep my context and content focused in this post I need to stick with the topic of context and how it affects writing. Focusing on your topic will also help your writing to read much smoother. It will not confuse the reader by jumping from topic to topic and thus confuse the context.

Another thing to remember when it comes to context and writing, is to remember your audience. If you are writing an article about surfing in California for a twenty-something age group, you may not want to include where the local shuffle board courts are. What you will want to do is focus your article's language and content to match not only those interested in surfing, but the twenty-something age group that the article is suppose to reach. By remembering who your intended audience is, you will be able to focus your content even more. This will make for a more effective piece of communication through your writing. By doing this you also ensure your reader understands what you are writing. The lingo for a twenty-something crowd may confuse someone in their sixties and vice-versa.

Your tone will affect the context of your writing as well. Tone can be a very tricky thing to relay appropriately in writing. Have you ever received a text message and thought the person was upset, only to find out that they were actually just joking and laughing? The tone of your writing can change the context completely. It might be easy for a man that was recently cheated on and who is writing about women who cheat to have a negative tone to his article. Writers are more effective when they leave their personal feelings out of what they are writing, unless it is called for. A person that is writing an article on the current health care reform in Congress for a publisher seeking an unbiased and fact based website, would not appreciate an article filled with your opinion or your possibly slanted way of reporting the "facts". However, if you are writing for an openly conservative website they may require that you include that bias and opinion in the article. My point is, is that when we write using our opinion or feelings we tend to use different words than when we are simply reporting the facts. Our language becomes a bit more lively and vivid as we begin to implement our anger toward cheaters, but if the publisher wants an unbiased article on cheating you must leave it out and remain neutral. You will have more of your writing accepted if you will keep to what the publisher asks for and nothing more.

All of the things listed above can be double checked with a good proof-reading of your article. Go back and read through the article several times, a few times aloud helps to. If you have someone else that can read over your article before you submit it, then they may catch mistakes you made as well. They can also give you good insight into whether or not your context confuses them anywhere.

So as you begin to write your next piece, remember what your topic is. Remember who you are writing to and only inject your own bias and opinion if that is what is called for. Good luck!

Free for Freelancers

2009-08-16T19:03:00.000-07:00

One of the first things I learned when trying to break into freelance writing is that I needed to make a name for myself. This does not necessarily mean that you have to become a best selling author or write for a large syndicate. What it does mean is that you create a presence on the web. This can be done in several different ways, and all of them free.

One of the best resources I have found thus far for getting my work out there is ezinearticles.com. This is a website that offers writers the opportunity to submit articles on a wide variety of subjects and gain online publication. It is free to set up an account with Ezine Articles and free to submit your articles. The submission process is fairly simple and user friendly.

One of the few drawbacks I have found with them is that when you are a new writer, or not a platinum level writer, it takes up to 7 days for your articles to be accepted. This can change though once you have had 10 submitted articles accepted. Once this happens, the Ezine staff determines what level you will move to. I was fortunate enough to be given platinum status after my first 10 articles, which means I have unlimited submissions and my articles are now reviewed in 2-3 days instead of the standard 5-7 for lower level members. So if you decide to use this website I would suggest sending in your first 10 articles within a week. This will give you the opportunity to be able to submit more and move up in status a bit quicker.

Along with getting your work out in public view, you can also use the website's tools offered in the author's section to better hone your freelance abilities. One of the things I have found most useful is being able to view how many times each of my articles have been viewed by others. This allows me to see what types of articles I am writing are doing the best as far as drawing traffic and which ones are not. An added benefit to this is it can help you find your niche, or your corner of the freelance world you will focus most on. Right now I am finding that my self-help articles are doing the best.

You may also notice in the right hand column of my blog you can view and click on some of those articles I have submitted to Ezinearticles.com. The ability to do this was a simple application available in the author's section as well. After generating a code on Ezine's website, it is a simple copy and paste from there. If you have a personal website or blog of your own, this could help advertise yourself and abilities more efficiently.

Another free resource for someone that is wanting to break into freelance writing is creating a blog, if you have not already. I created this free blog at blogger.com. By having a blog you can begin to create a following. The blog can be about anything you want it to be and will give you a playground of sorts for trying out new things. For example, I have tried different topics and ideas with this particular blog already. I have also tried different add-ons and Google AdSense. The important thing is that you are creating yet another place for you to build your name and get noticed. I use my blog as a reference on my Elance account as well, which leads me to my final free resource.

If you want to try and begin getting work as a freelance writer you can create an account for free at Elance.com. Here you will find a plethora of jobs for freelance writers. You will also find out that there are just as many, if not more, people bidding on these jobs. When you sign up for a basic account you are given two credits to use for bidding. These two credits are good for one month and if you do not sign up for one of their packages you will be limited to only two credits each month. Each job requires a different amount of credits in order to be able to bid. Most are either one or two credits each, typically depending on the amount of money that can be made on the job itself. So if you are a basic member, like me, you will either have the opportunity of bidding on two jobs each month or one, depending on how many credits you use. Even though my ability to bid on jobs is limited on Elance, I still like the opportunity to learn more about how to bid on jobs and learning the whole process for free. You may not get many jobs in the beginning, but the experience you will glean from just getting your feet wet in the bidding process will be well worth your time.

There is no doubt that there are many other free resources out there for freelance writers to use. I chose these three because I felt they would give a good array of different resources available. So if you are not already getting your name out there, start doing it. If you have yet to begin learning how to bid on jobs for freelance work, then sign up Elance and start learning. Whatever you decide to do, just keep moving forward with your dream.

Please feel free to add any free resources you have found to be helpful in the comment section below.

Keywords Are Key

2009-08-16T09:50:00.000-07:00

There is much talk online concerning the use of keywords. But is the proper use of keywords truly worth all they hype? The short answer is, yes. The proper use of keywords in your online articles, blogs, or postings will not only help you get more traffic, but will also help you become a more effective writer overall.

If you will learn how to use keywords you will begin to see more people finding your writing and viewing it. The consensus from what I have read so far is that keywords should account for about 2%-7% of your article content. This includes the title of your posting, as well as any headers you use. In fact, you should figure out how to include your keywords into those two areas every time you write. Search engines will crawl the web and search out websites and then list them in their searches according to how relevant they are to the keywords applied. So in essence, the better you learn to use keywords, the higher you will be listed on search engines. But be sure not to overuse keywords either. If search engines feel that you are abusing this aspect, they will in a sense ban you from their searches altogether. So learn how to balance your use of these gems and find ways of incorporating them effectively.

One way to avoid over usage is to look for alternative words to use throughout your posting to substitute for each keyword. If you are writing an article that is going to be using school as one of its keywords, try and use other words in its place like institution, establishment, place of education, etc. One place to find alternative words to use can be found at www.dictionary.com and then accessing the thesaurus function it offers. This will not only ensure you do not abuse your keyword, but also make your posting or article more appealing.

Another tip for keyword use is to not be stuck on using single words for them. Many are now turning to two and three word keyword phrases. Instead of just using school, you could use public school, or public school system. The reason for doing this is that the web has become inundated with one word keywords. By using two and three word phrases you will narrow the search options and have fewer competitors for the same keywords. This will ultimately mean higher positions on search engines.

Finally, by learning to use keywords effectively you will make your writing more effective overall. Anyone that has written for any length of time understands that you must not only catch the attention of a reader, but then keep it as well in order to be successful. By learning to use keywords effectively, you will catch the reader's attention in the title and headings, and then keep them interested by providing a focused article. If you are having to remember your keywords, you are having to stay on topic.

I hope that these tips will help you in your writing experience.

Welcome to My World

2009-08-16T09:24:00.001-07:00

I wanted to give a welcome message to anyone out there that may stumble across my blog. As I said in the heading of this blog, I will be sharing tips, techniques and other stuff that I feel may prove useful to others trying to break into freelance writing. The more I learn, the more I will be sharing.

So let's get this journey started!