Content Magician, Freelance web content writers

Archive for the ‘Freelance Writing’ Category

Author: Marsha Maung

Written the wrong article. And with a looming deadline too. Nothing could be worse. Things are bad. This could be the end of everything. I am going to have to burn a few midnight oils for this mistake.

Nah. Don’t have to. You see, here I am writing this article for myself after all. Want to know how it was done? Repurposing the article, of course! This is a learned art that one can only make use of through experience. You know, come to think of it, even if you don’t have the experience of writing tons and tons of articles every day, you can do it if you put your mind to it because it is nothing miraculous. You don’t need to know Karate to know how to whack this out.

Here’s what repurposing an article mean. It means saving the article from going completely into the waste bin, that’s what. As mentioned, I wrote the wrong article…two, in fact (yes, yes, as stupid as it sounds) and I need to save both. Here’s what needs to be done. I need to either find a new twist to it and fit it into a new genre or save some, lose some, add more. You know what you have written in your article, so you are in the best position to decide what stays so, give the article a quick scan and see what you can save from the whole thing and still present it to your client without having to rewrite the entire piece.

Admittedly, you probably can’t keep everything in there if it is a completely different topic altogether, so, you compile the information you need to ‘thrash’ and save it for later use. You can expand that into another article for another client later on. Then scan the web for new information that you can insert to ‘fill in the blanks’ for the current article. Find them and write them.

Most of the time, we write multiple articles for the same client so you must have written a fair amount in the past for this client. Re-use the previous information for this article and write it in a new way.

Switch on your torch lights and look inside your head to see if you have further information that you can INSTANTLY add from a previous article that you have written for another client too If you have it, add a few words in there. One of the biggest tool for a freelance writer is to know how to find multiple angles to write about the same thing. If you’re writing about wine bar, can you write it from a kid’s point of view (not the kids drinking but the how to make wine bars kid-friendly)? Can you write it from the wine maker’s point of view? Can you write it from a collector’s point of view? There are so many ways to write on one topic.

This, fellow writers, is called repurposing (I call it rescuing for very obvious reasons – for me, at least) the article so that you can maximize your income writing on the same topic. For some of us, it comes in handy when we stupidly write the wrong topic for the wrong client looking at the wrong deadline.

If you have anything to add to this, please comment. I am sure I could use another few tricks up my sleeves. We, freelance writers, are a pretty friendly bunch of people, aren’t we?

AUTHOR: Marsha Maung

If not for the internet, many of us would never have made it as writers. Some of us would probably be stuck in a boring job in a kitchen or driving trucks from state to state or teaching in a kindergarten. Whilst there is nothing wrong with those professions, it’s wrong when deep inside, there’s a dire need to write and share what we know or a story with everyone else through the written word. Writing is like an itch. It needs to be scratched.

With the internet, writers get the chance to test-drive their skills, practice and get advice, promote ourselves, express our feelings and also start a business. Many writers can’t imagine what life would be like without the internet.

Of course, there are many other ways to promote oneself without the internet but let’s face it, it would be far less effective. And of course, photographers get quite a bit of help from the internet as with many other types of businesses.

But because the internet is a world where the written word is the leading reason why people can find you online, suffice to say that writers have the upper hand. If you could write a decent piece of work, you can use it to promote yourself via various methods. Almost everything is reliant on the written word.

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Author: Marsha Maung, a freelance writer, ghost blogger and online social networking consusltant

Every now and again, I get emails or have people adding me on my Facebook account asking me if it was possible for them to become a freelance writer because:-

1. They’re a mother who is looking for extra income
2.  They’re a fresh graduate and is looking for a job
3. They think they’re bored with their current work and think they can string a couple of words together to make a living
4. They’ve just got laid off and is in the middle of a financial crisis

I would love to say that it’s possible for ANYONE to make it as a freelance writer, no, seriously, SERIOUSLY, I would. But honestly, it’s not true. I would be lying to you and at the end of the day, you’re going to hunt me down and spew curses down my throat for misleading you.

Freelance writing, much like anything else in life, needs skills and talents. Stringing a couple of words together does not a writer make. Hang on. I need to rephrase that. Stringing a couple of words together not a SUCCESSFUL freelance writer make. Freelance writers need, not only talents and skills, but he or she needs to WANT to be a writer.

Allena Tapia of about.com explained it at length about what makes a freelance writer a successful one and she has been spot on. During the early days, writers like me offer encouraging words to aspiring writers to spur them on so that they don’t despair. But it’s wrong.

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Seriously, if another person comes up to me asking me how the terrible, terrible economy is hitting me, I am seriously going to consider running away. Or merely turning my computer off and never ‘chat’ with another soul again. Sure, we’re all hit by the ailing economy…and as writers, we are hit harder because not only do we have to contend with really good writers, we now have to contest for the same job with mediocre but really cheap writers too.

This can’t be good for a writer like me…and here I am, telling it as it is (again) that, yes, we’re hit. Writers are hit….just like the man who sells soya bean paste, and the guy who sells noodles, just like Nike, just like the manufacturer of baby products.

But here’s where the freelance writing market is different. With the economy in such a state, more and more people are out of work…and not all of them are cut out for work as a writer (phew!), so they explore options like online businesses, network marketing or start selling scrapbooking materials, etc.

When there’s a new business…what do we have? YES! Online marketing and promotions! Well, not all of them are going to market themselves online or sell a single damn thing online but at the very least, they’re going to need some web content work done, right? Absolutely.

From my point of view, even if they don’t intend to have a website or a blog, they are going to need someone to write their brochures, newsletters or…say…their proposals?

If you’re a budding writer, here’s where you fit in (cue: title track from Indiana Jones) and you’ve already got your freelance business all set-up and ready to rock and roll, you’re going to be the first few in line for these new projects.

Bloomberg is correct. So’s CNN. We’re nose-diving financially but this does not AUTOMATICALLY mean that there are no freelance jobs out there for freelance writers. There are plenty. All you have to do is to look in the right place and be patient.

And oh…remember to promote yourself too. It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there right now.

I’ve received many messages from my friends and visitors of both my blog and websites asking me for advice on how to get started as a freelance writer. One of them asked me, point-blank, no-holds-barred, ‘How to get clients ah?’

The internet is a vast space for you to explore your options. In the same way that it is a vast space with an abundance of opportunities, it’s also filled with competitors….with sharp nails…and fangs. They will not hesitate to sink their fangs and nails into your flesh. Especially now that the economy is nose-diving into a pit of possible oblivion, competition is even tougher.

But it’s not impossible to thrive as a freelance writer today and here’s how you’re going to get started.

Write write write and then write some more

No matter how tedious you think this is going to be, I’ll hit you with it. There’s no escaping this. If you want to start building your career as a freelance writer, you’ve got to write, write, write and write some more. Write till it becomes very natural to you. In an ironic way, this is how you’re going to pay for your tuition fees….through experience.

Write for free, write to publicize yourself, write to promote your services, write for peanuts, write and get criticized….this is the first task right there at the top of your to-do list.

Publish articles for free

This is a small part of article marketing. If you’re not familiar, here’s how it works. You write for free, you post it up on an article directory, other website owners go in in search of articles to post in their own website or blog, they find yours, publish it and link it to your own website or profile page.

Essentially, you’re saying, ‘Hey, take this and publish it. It’s free…no, really, it’s free. It’s really….here, try me….please?’ The only condition about publishing your article(s) for free is for them to include your byline (this is where the publicity stunt is, folks) and a link (if you have) back to where you want your potential clients to find you.

Blog about everything, show off what you’ve got

For me, the internet and the blogging platform is the next best thing to an orgasm. You’re running your own tabloid, no editor breathing down your throat and you’re a columnist overnight – use it and use it wisely. Now, although blogs were meant to be online journals IN THE BEGINNING, I believe that they have evolved to an extent that everyone’s got one and if you don’t have one and want to have an online career, you’ll have better chances of making it where the zebras live.

So, start a blog and start displaying your talent.

Bid for projects through freelance websites

In order to reap the rewards of your hard work, experience and skills set, you’ve first got to learn how to grovel. Eat dirt. Getafreelancer (there are many others, so, do your homework) is a haven for grovelers because employers know that most green horns get their starts here and you’re going to have to do the same. In Getafreelancer, an employer posts a project, an army of people bid for the project at less-than-self-respectful prices and then the employer picks one. Most of the time, you’d have to go down really low to get a hold of the project but hey, this is where you start.

The main purpose is for you to get the experience and also build your portfolio.

Somewhere down the road, when you’ve successfully marketed yourself as a freelance writer, people want to see a portfolio. Since you’ve groveled, kissed shoes, begged and worked for peanuts so much, you’ve probably got a tidy bundle of portfolio to show off.

That, my friends, is when your groveling pays off.

Good luck to you!

It’s a matter of habit, really. However, the fact remains that where I sit down, yield the pen (or rather, the keyboard) to write the stuff that I churn out for my freelance writing clients is extremely important to me. This has, partly, to do with discipline. I’ve disciplined myself to tune into my work and come in sync with the topics that I have to write about only when I am sitting in my little ‘office’, a little room that I guard with my life.

Hence, whether I own an iPhone or a laptop is completely irrelevant to me. Of course, there ARE other freelance writers who can sit down and write whatever it is that is required of them whenever or wherever. But that’s just not me. I would rather associate a place that I feel comfortable with doning the ‘thinking cap’ instead of writing on my bed or in the living hall. The feelings just don’t flow.

And besides, I’ve two kids. Which means that I need to train them so that they don’t interupt me whenever I am working on something. Ever since they were young, I’ve taught them that mommy works from home, she writes and whenever she writes, she’s in THAT room over there. And when she’s in THAT room over there, unless it’s really urgent and requires immediate attention, they would have to wait.

But it’s a two way street, of course. For every article that I finish, I would stop, give myself a break and go out and hangout with them for a while. This is the only way I can balance my freelance writing career and my family life.

I envy those who can do their freelance work everywhere because this simply means that they can literally travel without any problems at all and STILL continue to deliver top-notch stuff to their clients. In time, I would have to learnt how to do the same thing. But for now, I think for a lot of people, in order to write well, you need to be in the right frame of mind. And the atmosphere and environment is crucial to how efficient the freelance writer is whenever she/he is behind the keyboard.

Patience and Persistence.

Some people get easily frustrated and give up halfway when trying to learn a new trait. I think that’s such a waste, especially when there’s potential for growth in that person. Just because a person signs up for violin lessons doesn’t make that person a Vanessa Mae within a couple of months or a year. Taking up golf does not make a person Tiger Woods within months. These examples I just gave are people who are born to excel because they have the attitude and the right upbringing.

Most importantly, they know what it takes to make it in their own respective industry. It takes persistence, practice, lots of patients and most probably a lot of tears as well. Learning how to write well for the internet, author a book or become a freelance writer takes a lot of practice and patience as well. And this is the encouraging word that I would love to leave aspiring writers with today.

There WILL be criticisms and some people will hate whatever you’ve written. Some other professional writers will scoff at your effort. You could have spent countless hours just toiling over a seemingly well-written piece, thinking that it’s the best piece you have written thus far, only to have people say that it’s stuff kindergarten kids come up with.

Trust me, people, especially critics, are exceptionally cruel when evaluating works of others. As it turns out, it’s far easier to say negative things about what someone have written than to say nice things about it. The negative points, after all, is far more apparent in the beginning. To find the good things in what you have written, it takes effort and not a lot of people are willing to put effort into finding GOOD THINGS to say about what you have written.

In order to make it in this online world and to be a well-paid freelance writer or freelance web content writer, you’ll need to learn how to take criticisms seriously without letting it dampen your will to succeed.

With every backlash, you are one step closer to perfection.

by Marjorie J McDonald

When deciding on a topic to write or speak about gather the information you want to present to the reader or audience. Place the information in categories relating to various aspects of your topic. From there, sort the information into level of importance from most important to least important in being able to communicate about your topic.

You then can determine what would actually contribute to presenting your topic clearly and what would be extra information that could add some value. Then determine what information would subtract value from your subject or fall into rambling about the subject.

Next, begin to gather the main points of your topic by putting them in order of what the reader needs to know first and then continue to what they would need or want to know last. You will be introducing your topic, giving information about your topic and then explaining to your reader or listener why this information would be of value for them to know.

Sort the main points into an outline. When you have the major part of the outline in place begin to add to those main points just enough extra information to increase the descriptions and give value to the topic so your reader or listener would feel like it was helpful additional information to understand the topic.

Write down your information and add just enough to keep it interesting and maybe, at that point, just a few extra tidbits that would add but were not really necessary. This way you will be staying on topic and the reader or listener will be able to determine if they want to find out more about the topic you have presented to them.

If you just stay with the main facts with limited extra information the reader or listener will value your presentation more and can then easily determine if getting more information would work for them. They will appreciate your ability to present information and stay on topic. It shows respect for their time and that places you as a writer or speaker higher on their list to come back to you for information in the future.

And now I invite you to join me for a series of writing exercises to help you discover your areas of interest in writing as well as increasing your creativity. You may access these exercises by visiting http://www.freecreativewritingstrategies.com

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
You also may enjoy visiting my blog at

http://www.creativewritingmadeeasy.com

By Deborah Owen 

While it is true that a few people can skip protocol and begin writing for large markets without writing credits, the ordinary person cannot. Be prepared, because every publication will want to know where you have been published before, and you should have a list of publications as long as your arm.Write for ezines that pay in subscriptions, (some will pay $5). Write for your church bulletin and bulletins at work. Go to your local newspaper and ask if they need someone to cover sports and/or political meetings. (These are hard jobs to fill, and almost every paper needs someone in these positions.)

You may be asking yourself, “But if I give writing references in ezines, bulletins, and local papers, won’t the editor know I’ve been working for nothing?” Yes, they will, but they won’t care. They will admire you for your tenacity. They will know you’ve been out working and learning the market, and they’ll know that you must be some kind of a decent writer, or no one would have published you.

There is yet another way that you can get experience, and that is writing for Associated Content and other such places. You can also write for article distribution centers. Everything counts.

When you send your first piece into a magazine, don’t make the mistake of saying, “My teacher said she liked this piece,” “I’ve never been published before, but I’ll be a hard worker,” or “I belong to a writer’s club and they voted this article as the best of the month.” These are amateur remarks, and any editor will recognize them as such.

If you don’t have any publication credits, avoid the subject altogether. Give the short story on how you got into writing and what your goals are, and always thank the editor for his time in reading your submission.

In conclusion: write articles free of charge to get publishing credits (and keep dated clippings from each one in a scrap book, as you will need that information later on); present yourself well and have the audacity of a Rockefeller. Remember, you’re selling yourself. Most of the time, you’ll get the chance you’re looking for, if you bluff your way through it.

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Receive a free writing evaluation by clicking here: http://www.creativewritinginstitute.com. Send in stories for the newsletter! Cool things happen at CWI.

I think one of the hardest lessons to learn as a professional freelance writer is this….finding your own personal writing style and also accepting criticisms from those who prefer a different style of writing. For instance,….yes, you would have guessed, journalists and published authors.

Generally speaking, these professionally-trained individuals are highly qualified people where writing is concerned and frown (very deeply) upon the style adopted by bloggers and internet freelance writers because of their lack of style and formal training. ‘The foundation isn’t even there’…. ‘that’s a whole load of bull’…or ‘he/she could use a few months in proper training on how to write PROPERLY’.

They view the materials written by bloggers and internet freelance writers as an insult to their profession.

Professionals, as I would now like to call them, are particularly harsh on bloggers, internet freelance writers and so-called self-proclaimed freelance writers because they’re pretty much against vanity press. It seems, to me, their awards, certificates and accolades, perhaps, have given them the right to criticize other styles of writing not taught in school.

I guess in a lot of ways, it works out just right because if I was a lawyer and someone came up to me, claiming to know more about an area of law that I was educated for, I would be on my feet slamming on tables, fuming at the sheer arrogance of this person claiming to know more about the law…which is something I was trained for.

But I think some professional writers, authors, reporters, journalists should just hang loose for a bit here and stop being so harsh on internet freelance writers. There is a long brick wall standing between these literature experts and freelance writers….a long, thick wall and frankly speaking, I don’t see how freelance writers and bloggers can be a threat to journalists.

Bloggers and freelance writers have evolved so much with Web 2.0 that a ‘new style’ of writing has been developed. Instead of churning out striking web of words, the focus is on how to deliver thoughts, feedback, reviews and ideas in as personal a way as possible and in the shortest period of time.

People who read on the internet couldn’t, really, be bothered with how well spun an article is. Journalists and newspaper writers should just stick to their own industry…writing for magazines, books, newspapers, and other more traditional form of media….unless they’re willing to bend their own rules and principles a little.

Bloggers and freelance writers can then focus on how internet writing works and generate reasonable income from providing their ‘services’ to their clients.

So, please….don’t be harsh on us just because we’re not QUALIFIED. The same way journalists can’t comprehend or do away with using a certain method of coming up with a masterpiece, bloggers can’t quite understand why something so simple has to be so complicated.

The same way a journalist will find it hard to be a copywriter and a copywriter might have more than a little trouble writing a screenplay, people cannot unreasonably impose journalistic principles on bloggers and internet writers who rely significantly on Web 2.0 and vanity press.

In this case, shouldn’t we just say ‘we agree to disagree‘?