by Amanda on February 1, 2010
Freelance writing income can often be compared to a rollercoaster ride. One month your income is up and the next it is down. It’s a rollercoaster ride and one that more and more freelance writers want to get off.
Have you ever noticed what you do when your freelance writing income goes down? What you do when your client list decreases? What you do when you have no freelance writing jobs?
The answer to this is easy. You start marketing. You look for freelance writing jobs, you promote your services and you network with others. When work is short you start looking for it. What happens then is that all your hard work pays off and the next month your income is up.
Up and down, month after month, this is the rollercoaster ride for many freelancers. If you want to change this and stay on the up you need to pay attention. Have you ever noticed what happens when your freelance writing income is on the up? What do you do when you have plenty of clients and plenty of work?
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by Amanda on January 26, 2010
If you want to be a successful freelance writer there are three things that you need to be doing on a regular basis. These are:
- Promoting
- Networking
- Job Hunting
Promoting
Promoting yourself as a freelance writer is vital to your success. There are a number of ways that you can do this. You can use article marketing, post new articles to your blog or website or write guest posts for other blog owners. Promotion is all about getting your name out there and having your freelance writing talents recognized.
Did you know that most potential clients will Google your name to find out more about you? What does you name show up? Have you ever actually Googled yourself to see what the results display? You might be surprised at what you find.
Networking
Networking is all about staying in the loop and talking with other freelance writers. Networking is a great way to meet potential clients too. There are a number of ways that you can network and these include using websites such as Facebook and Twitter, following and commenting on other freelance writing blogs and participating in forums. Networking is also a great way to meet other freelance writers and discuss issues or problems you might be having. Networking also gets your name out there and to be a successful freelance writer people need to know your name.
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by Amanda on January 22, 2010
We all want to be successful freelancers and the key to getting there comes in just one simple word:
ACTION
If you want to be a successful freelancer you need to take action. You need to look for freelance writing jobs, you need to market and you need to promote your services. You need to do this continuously and not just when your work dries up.
You ask any of the really successful freelancers and they will tell you that they have a marketing plan, they promote their services on a daily basis and they keep an eye on the jobs boards. They take action. They are not just sitting there waiting for success to come; they are making success happen.
Think about your own freelance writing career for a moment.
Do you have a plan?
Are you promoting your services?
Are you looking for the right freelance writing jobs?
If you answered yes that’s great but answer me this, how often are you doing all these things?
I decided over the Christmas period that 2010 was going to be my year for success. I decided it was time to take real action, to plan, to market and to promote. It is now getting close to the end of January and things are starting to come together. I have taken the time to reassess things, to prioritize and to focus. Have you?
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by Amanda on January 17, 2010
by Amanda on January 11, 2010
Every freelance writer wants to be a success. The thing you have to remember though is that you are not just a freelance writer; you are building a freelance writing business. With this in mind what I want to talk to you about today is measuring your freelance writing success.
You have probably made some goals in relation to your freelance writing that you want to achieve in 2010 and the tips that I am sharing in this article should help you to focus and ensure that you reach your goals.
For the purpose of this post I am going to use the example that you want to earn an additional $10,000 in 2010.
This sounds like a reasonable goal and one that is very achievable if you put your mind to it.
The first thing that you need to determine is what this $10,000 will be made up of. Where will the income come from? Will it be additional client work? Will you earn more from your own writing? Will you monetize your blog to increase your income?
How will you know if you are achieving your goal? Will you wait until 2010 draws to a close and you add up your yearly income? How will you know if you are on track or if you have veered off track? The key to this is measuring. Measuring is something that you should be doing daily, weekly and monthly and in order to do this there are some questions that you need to ask yourself about your freelance writing business and you monetary goal for 2010.
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by Amanda on January 9, 2010
It’s the New Year and for many people this means goals and resolutions. I have a number of goals that I have set for 2010 but I won’t bore you with a goals post. I’m sure you have read plenty of these over the last few weeks. What I do want to tell you about is what I have planned for the Ghostwriting Uncovered Blog for 2010.
As you can see I have been extremely busy over the past few months and have not been posting as regularly as I should have. This is mainly due to the work that was taking place on this website. You will notice that the website has had a makeover. Hope you like it. I had a great designer working with me and he had a big job to do. I combined my standalone Ghostwriting Uncovered website and the Ghostwriting Uncovered Blog into one wordpress website. This was a big job but it will make things so much easier for me. It was becoming a pain to have to try and contact a website designer every time I wanted to change something on the main website so I decided to intergrate everything. I have to say I am delighted with the results. There are a couple more tweaks to come but overall the new look is finished. What do you think?
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by Amanda on November 5, 2009
Last week I received an email from Neil Asher in which he included a link to a free Elance E-book. This free e-book has been written for people who want to outsource but it is also a good read for freelance writers who use Elance as a means of getting freelance writing jobs. This e-book explains how buyers can use Elance which you probably won’t find interesting but it also goes on to explain how buyers should screen freelancers, what they should look for and how they should evaluate bids. This is great for freelance writers as it will give you an insight into the mind of the buyer and what they are really looking for.
As you probably know I am a big advocate of Elance and I have been using this website to obtain freelance writing jobs since 2004. I still use Elance and probably complete at least one writing assignment per month. This free Elance e-book is great for all new freelance writers who are confused about finding jobs on Elance and it will explain what you need to include in both your portfolio and your bids.
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by Amanda on November 3, 2009
A number of months ago I took part in an interview for the Write Out Loud website that was being carried out by Ami Spencer. I am delighted to announce that this interview is now live and if you would like to read it you can do do by visiting the Write Out Loud Website:
I always love taking part in interviews and being able to give any advice and help that I can.
Hope you enjoy the interview.
Until next time,
Keep writing
by Amanda on October 19, 2009
I was sick the entire weekend which is what has sparked this post. I have vertigo which meant that I spend my entire weekend lying on the couch. This of course had an impact on my freelance writing work because I wasn’t able to do anything. It was hard enough to keep my eyes focused let alone look at the laptop. I have a client that I work with an my job involves posting on three different blogs on a daily basis. One of these blogs has two posts per day so even at the weekend I have some work to do. I had no choice this weekend but to inform my client that I was ill and lucky for me she said that I could post all the blogs when I was feeling up to it and just back date them.
Today as you can imagine was quite a hectic day for me because instead of four blog posts to complete I had twelve. It got me thinking though….what do freelance writers do when they are ill?
When I worked in a 9 – 5 job it didn’t matter if I was ill because someone else would cover my job and complete my work for the days I was absent. Not with freelancing though. Do you have an illness plan? What do you do when you are sick?
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by Amanda on October 7, 2009
I like to keep up to date with what is happening online and yesterday the main story that caught my eye was the one where the FTC have updated their regulations. These new rules will come into effect on the 1st of December.
If you promote products on your blog or you write paid reviews you now have to disclose them. I’m not sure how this will effect everyone and I’m sure you will all have your views on this too. A Google search for blogger must disclose endorsement will bring up over 60,000 results so this is obviously causing quite a stir. Below is a list of some of the articles for those interested in reading more.
Cnet News
Lockergnome
Bizjournals
Fiercecio
NPR
Dmwmedia
PC World
MSNBC
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