This week my series of articles focus on Elance.  Elance is a website where you can bid on freelance writing jobs.  It is a paid membership website and this week I want to give you the ins and outs of using Elance, why it’s a good idea to have an Elance account, and how to place bids on Elance.  There is a lot of information to cover so be sure to check in daily to read more.

First off let me say I joined Elance back in 2004 and have been a member ever since.  Is it something I regret, definitely not.  Elance was my starting point as a freelancer and I have gained a lot of knowledge and great clients through Elance.

Do I recommend people join Elance?

Yes.

If you don’t have an Elance account then maybe you should get one.  If you are just starting out you might think that you can’t afford to pay a monthly membership but I do believe that $9.95 per month is justifiable.

Like most people you have probably heard that bidding websites should be avoided because they pay peanuts and some of this is correct.  Elance however have been around long before these peanut paying jobs started infiltrating the markets and my guess is that they will be around for a lot longer too.  With Elance the minimum bid you can place on any job is $50 and the majority of people who place jobs on Elance do so in the knowledge that they will have to pay for this work.

I am reviewing the website Get A freelancer this week and today day 3 I can really see why Elance have such an advantage.  I am convinced that people post jobs on GAF because they know they will get them completed for nothing and I really do mean nothing.  I have seen jobs posted there looking for writers to complete 500 word articles for $1.  That really is a joke and it explains why bidding websites have such a bad name.  Elance is not GAF I am happy to say.  There are a few of these ridiculously low paying jobs getting added but unlike GAF on Elance no one bids on these jobs.  Most of the members on Elance are like me and have been there since the beginning.  We are not willing to compromise ourselves or our reputations by bidding on these jobs and the people posting these jobs know that.

The minimum amount you can expect to get on Elance for a 500 word article is $10 and that really is a big difference.

Elance holds strong when it comes to its members too.  No adult content jobs are allowed and if posted these jobs are removed.

I think what it boils down to, is the fact that websites like Get A Freelancer and other free bidding websites are only out to make a quick buck.  They’ve seen how well sites like Elance and Guru do and they want a slice of the action.  The difference is however, they don’t care how they make their money.  I am getting a bit critical here and I apologise for this, but it really has opened my eyes reviewing Get A Freelancer this week because I have witnessed firsthand the trash that is being posted here and it makes me have more respect for Elance.

I began on Elance back in 2004 and this is what started my freelance career.  Even back then it was expected that you would get $10 for a 500 word article, maybe $5 for a 300 word article.  These are minimum amounts but that was what you were expected to bid and this is what buyers expected to pay.  It seems though over the years things have started to slide.  There are a number of very cheap paying jobs creeping onto Elance and there are some members that are bidding lower than what I have stated above but still Elance remains quite strong.  I think the real reason Elance hasn’t been flooded with crap job postings and $1 articles is because buyers know they won’t get bids, they know their offers won’t be excepted, and they know that if they want to post a job on Elance then they have to be willing to pay for it.  That’s the way it should be in my opinion.

Elance for me has been my key to success and for the first 2 years of my freelancing career it was my main income earner.  When I started freelancing I was also working part time.  Through Elance I was able to earn the same amount freelancing as I was working part time and this is what convinced me to quit my day job.  I built up my list of clients through Elance too and I still work with some of them today too.  You see with Elance I have found that most of the jobs you get become repeat work.  I worked with some of my clients for 6 months, other a year or more.  The best thing is, these people also recommend you to others and this is how you build your business.

I very seldom have to look for work now which is great but I still keep my Elance membership open.

Over the past couple of months I have started using my Elance account again and have managed to get a number of new clients.  Like I mentioned you can get $10 per 500 word article on Elance so why would you bid lower than that.

I definitely think it’s time that freelancers took a stand where the likes of these $1 article jobs are concerned and just say NO.

I have rambled a bit on this post..

My question was, do you have an Elance account.  If you answered no, then I suggest you come back and read this blog everyday this week to see why you should have an Elance account.

Until next time,

Keep writing.
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Search engine optimization (SEO) is something that all webmasters want to incorporate into their websites and this includes their content. As a freelance writer is it vital that you understand the logistics of search engine optimization in order to fulfill the needs of your clients and appeal to new clients too.

If you want to be a successful SEO article writer there are four strategies that you need to incorporate. Each of these will be discussed in detail in the next couple of blog posts.

The four strategies are:

1. Keywords
2. Content
3. Formatting
4. Links

Before we move on to discuss the first of these strategies, Keywords, I want to take a moment to explain exactly what an SEO article is.

An SEO article (search engine optimized article) is something that you will be asked to write on a frequent basis. This is basically a piece of writing that will be developed specifically to include targeted keywords. The purpose of these articles is to allow the chosen keywords to rank highly in the search engines. When these articles are written in large batches they can in fact attract large amounts of traffic from the search engines and this is potentially what your cliens will be looking for.

In even simpler terms, an SEO article is an article that is written around a particular keyword in a particular format to attract high results from search engines. Written correctly, SEO optimized articles can get your clients large quantities of visitors and traffic and that is exactly what clients are looking for.

Keywords:

Keywords are paramount when it comes to writing SEO articles. You will more than likely be given the keywords by your client but in order to fully understand the process of SEO optimized articles I think it is only fair that we discuss the process of keyword selection and why these keywords that you have been given are so important.

Keywords are the building blocks of all search engine optimization efforts. The selection of keywords is the first of the four strategies and finding the right keywords is vital. When it comes to keywords for any niche there will be competition and this is something that you client will have looked at before he/she chooses the keywords that they give you. When clients are selecting keywords they are doing so by understanding the motive that is behind the keyword. When they can understand the motives they can select the keyword and know the type of content that will appeal to those who search for this keyword in the search engines.

A couple of examples of this would be:

Keyword: ____ features – the motive associated with a keyword that includes features is that the person seaching will be looking to acquire more information about the particular product. If your client is trying to sell a product this might not necessarily be a good keyword to focus on.

Keyword: Try ____ – the motive associated with a keyword that includes try is a free trail. People will search for this is they want to try out a product or service. If your client doesn’t offer a trial of their product then they should also avoid this keyword.

Keyword: Buy _____ – the motive behind this keyword is of course buy and anyone who searches for this term will be looking to purchase the product or service. If you client is selling a product this is an excellent keyword and it might also be the keyword that has the most competition so your article will need to be top notch in order to be successful. This is why writers who specialize in SEO writing can demand rates up to $100 per article. Their writing gets results and this is exaclty what clients want and they are willing to pay for this expertise.

Your clients will categorize their keywords and may also organize them by geography, by attributes, by intended usages, and by price. This will help them to determine which keywords are more important.

Keyword weight is another important aspect. The weight of a keyword is determined by the number of people who search for that particular keyword each month. If you are serious about SEO writing then this is something that you should be able to check yourself too. There are lots of free keyword tools that will give you these results. If you are given a keyword that is searched over 100,000 times per month then you can be guaranteed that this keyword will have a lot of competition and your article should be written accordingly. In this case it is vital to make your article stand out from the crowd by including as much information as possible.

The majority of the keywords that you will probably receive from your clients will be targeted towards terms that are not highly competitive and as such don’t be surprised if you get keywords that don’t really make sense. You might get a keyword that is difficult to incorporate into sentences and heading and in this case a good trick to use is to try to split the keyword by using a comma,

I have often found that if you take the time to look at your keyword in all aspects you will find a way to incorporate it into your article.

For example:

Learning French Alphabet – this keyword doesn’t make sense and you may be inclined to slot the word the into it but then this changes the keyword.

I have discoverd a great way to use this keyword and that is to finish a sentence with the word learning and being the next one with French Alphabet or break up the sentence with a comma between learning and french.

Example: To help with your learning, french alphabet pronunciation is vital.

As you can see, I have used the exact keyword. It’s easy when you look at things differently.

By using the keyword exactly as your client gives it to you, you will be able to produce the best results. If someone searches for learning french alphabet then your optimized article will show up.

Watch what you type in the search engines and you will get a better idea of what keywords really are. How many times do you leave out the little words such as “the”. You’ll be surprised at what you type into the search engines when you start paying attention.

That’s it for Part 1 of this 4 part article writing report. Tomorrows post will focus on Content so make sure to check back. If you have any questions about Part 1 be sure to ask them in the comments section and I will answer them.

Until next time,

Keep writing.

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I hope the headline hasn’t shocked you too much and if it has then let me tell you my reason for it.  After doing some careful marketing research over the past couple of days I decided to contact a number of Irish based web design companies to offer my content writing services.  You may not be aware of this, but more and more web design companies are now including copywriting packages that their clients can choose from.  One such web design company is Solas Web Design and their range of copywriting packages is extensive.  They offer a Blog Journalling package which includes 4 blog articles per month at 500 words minimum per post for get this….$500.  Yes $500 for 4 blog posts.

Now you can see why I thought offering my services to Irish web design companies was a good idea.

I logged onto Google and typed in Web Design Companies making sure that I had pages from Ireland clicked.  The first company that I rang was Cobweb.  Someone with a very foreign accent answered the phone.  I told him that I had been looking at their website and was wondering if they offered copywriting services to their clients.  He immediately responded by telling me that the manager was away and to ring back next week.  That was the end of my conversation.  The next company I tried had a fault with their landline so that was a waste of time also.  The next company only listed an email contact address or a mobile number.  I didn’t call.

The next company I tried was Ripe web design.  I spoke to a very nice gentleman called Warren.  I told him I had been looking at his website and was wondering if he offered his clients copywriting services.  He told me there was no need because in this day and age nobody copies content from websites because they get penalised by Google for duplicate content.  He had misunderstood my question completely and was talking about copyrighting and not copywriting.  When I explained to him what I was actually talking about he went on to tell me that I was wasting my time and that content writing was a waste of time.  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.  This was a web design company that also offers SEO services and he was telling me that content on a website was just a waste of time.  Now excuse my ignorance, but am I missing something here?  Isn’t SEO optimized content a necessity to rank well with Google?  Has everything that I have been doing for the past 5 years irrelevant?

This web designer basically told me that he did the content himself and that most of his clients told him to just put anything on the pages……Sounds like his clients don’t want their websites to do well doesn’t it?

I began to inform him that a lot of US and UK web design companies were offering copywriting packages but this didn’t change his opinion at all.  He basically informed me that copywriting was not something that people are interested in.

I’m finding this very difficult to believe.  You read time and time again about the important of unique content, keyword optimized content, blog posts, etc., and now I’m being told that this is not important.  What do you think?

To end the conversation, Warren did give me his email address and told me to email him my website details, etc, and that he would put it on his website so there may be hope yet.  I just don’t know.  Are the web design companies in your area offering copywriting services?  Have you every tried to offer your services to a web design company?  If so please share your experiences because I would really like to think that this was a one off and that there are web design companies out there who realise that content is important.

Until next time,

Keep writing.

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Welcome to another Friday of love here at The Hidden Writer.  It’s been another crazy busy week for me, i just don’t know what’s happening.  Clients are literally crawling out of the wood work and new clients are continuing to pour in.  I am putting it down to the new website design and of course the fact that my rates are now clearly visible. (I will discuss my decision on this in another post).

In between writing, editing, and researching this week, I have still managed to pull up some excellent posts to list for you here today.  First though, I want to say a big thank you to everyone who comments on these blog posts.  They are written for you and when you comment it let me know that you appreciate what I am dong here.  Without further ado, here’s today’s list of posts.

• The Monster List Of Freelancing Job Sites by freelance Switch is the first post I want to link to.  This is an amazing list of resources for anyone looking for freelance work.  I suggest you bookmark this one because you will want to refer to it again and again.
• 12 Tips To Promote Your Work With Social Media.  This post is from Daily Blog Tips and details how you can promote your work using such sites as StumbleUpon.  The post tells you what to do and what not to do and is again another excellent read for any write looking to promote their work.
• 25 Good Follows For Freelancers.  Twitter is everywhere and I just had to include this post from Twitter tips which list 25 people that all freelancers should follow.  If you use Twitter then check this list out and see are you following the right people.
• How To Write 50 Articles A Day.  This post is from Freelance Writing jobs and is written by James Chartrand of Men With Pens.  I have to admit I love the style of writing James uses and his post is one that will have you near laughing.  I’m not going to spoil it for you by revealing what the article is about so I suggest you head over there and check it out for yourself.
• The Revision Process by Impish Idea is an older post dated in December but one that merits a mention.  It’s a long post providing some excellent details and guidelines on how to revise your work.
• Do You Write For Cheap? Read This is a post from The Renegade Writer which discusses the ongoing debate about writing cheap articles.  This post is quite detailed and well worth the read.

That’s it for this week but some great reading in the posts mentioned above.  Be sure to leave your comments if you have any.

Until next time,

Keep Writing.

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If you are one of the many people deciding to make the transitition into ghostwriting in 2009 then you are going to want to know where to start.  Now I could plug my ghostwriting Uncovered manual here but I’m not going to.  If you want to buy it you can

Today I want to list all the websites I know where you can bid on ghostwriting jobs.  I probably won’t be able to list them all so if I miss any that you recommend be sure to place them in the comments.  I would like to be able to compile a very comprehensive listing here on The Hidden Writer so that anyone looking for ghostwriting jobs will know where to start.  I would also like it if people would post their opinions and experiences with these websites in the comments section because that way we can help prevent time wasting.

2009 List Of Bidding Websites For Ghostwriters

1. Elance – This is probably the most common place for ghostwriters to bid on writing jobs.  A paid membership can cost from $9.95 with 20 connects (bids) per month.  You can also become a free member with 3 connects per month.  Elance has to be my favourite, it’s where I started out and whenever I am short on work this is the place I always return.  I have secured many of my full time clients from this website.
2. Guru - Guru is next in line after Elance and is a paid membership website.  I have to admit, that I don’t have much experience with Guru.  When I was starting out Guru’s membership fees were too much for me.  I have heard some good reports about this website though so hopefully someone will be able to provide some more details.
   
3. Get A freelancer - Get a freelancer is an extremely busy freelance website with plenty of jobs to bid on.  You can join for free and your get 15 bids per month.  You can also upgrade your membership to Gold status for $12 and if you do you don’t have to pay fees on the jobs you win.  My only complaint about this website is that all the jobs that are posted are really low paying.  I have seen people bid $30 for up to 40 articles.  I don’t know if anyone gets high paying or even reasonably paying work from here.  Anyone any comments?
   
4. Rent A Coder - Again I am not really familiar with this website.  Membership is free. 
   
5. Odesk - This is another website that I am not familiar with so any input would be appreciated.
   
6. Direct Freelance - I am a free member of this website and receive daily emails when jobs are posted.  Most of the jobs look very promising but I haven’t as yet bid on one because you need to be a paying member to do so.   It is worth joining as a free member and subscribing to their email alerts so that you can see for yourself the type of ghostwriting jobs on offer.
   
7. Biz Reef - I am also a member of this website.  What appealed to me about this website was the fact that you could bid in your own currency.  I subscribe to their email alerts and receive frequent emails  about new jobs that have been posted.  The jobs look promising but there are also jobs with very low pay so I am still undecided about this one.
8. EU Freelance - This website is linked to GetAFreelancer and is relatively new.  Bids are placed in Euro but like Get A Freelancer I have a feeling they are from people looking to have work carried out for nothing.
9. Writerlance - Don’t have very much information on this website.  As far as I know it’s free to join but again somewhere low bids can be expected.
   
10. Pclance - This is totally new to me and one I never heard of until I started researching this post.  Hopefully someone will be able to provide more information.
    
11. Ifreelance - This is a website that I joined as a free member back in 2007.  It was very promising and had some excellent ghostwriting jobs.  After a couple of months they changed to a fee paying site and because I have an Elance membership and my client base was growing I didn’t upgrade.  Anyone have experiene with this website that they can share?
    
12. Project4hire - This is another website I discovered when researching for this post.  Any information would be great.
    
13. Writing Bids - Another new one to me, looks very similar to all the other free websites.  Hopefully someone can provide more information.
    
14. Gofreelance - Another one that I have yet to experience but again probably very similar to the free websites that are out there.

I think the main problem with websites free websites such as Get A Freelancer is the members.  There are people who are bidding next to nothing to complete the projects and that is why more and more  people are becoming convinced that they can get work done for nothing.  What do you think?  Have I hit the nail on the head here?

Until next time,

Keep writing.

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Welcome to the very first Friday link love of 2009.  I have quite a lot to share with you today so here goes.

First up is a post called The 10 Free Resources Every Writer Needs.  Some excellent stuff here and definitely worth the read.

Over on Mashable they have a great post title 100+ places to find jobs.  Some great gems here and some websites I hadn’t heard about before.  I’ve bookmarked quite a few.

Next a website I found while stumbling called Learn Gsm with a great post on 50 Useful Google Apps For Writers.

The next website link is not so much a blog post but I’m including it anyway.  Bright Hub are looking for writers to submit content and be paid for it.  Sounds promising so be sure to check this one out.

Web Writer News has a post about getting paid to write and earning residual income.

About freelance Writing has a great post on Goal Setting and Keeping which is perfect for the start of a new year.  Some great tips in this article.  This website also has another excellent post titled “Are you in love with your Writing?” This is definite must read for everyone.

The Golden Pencil have a very good article this week on Deadly Freelance Assumptions (or how to go out of business) Some excellent freelance myths debunked in this article and a must read for all freelancers.

Author Marketing Experts have a great post on Trend Spotting and Predictions for 2009.  This article gives writers an insight into what to be writing about in 2009.  Very good article and a definite for bookmarking so that you can refer back to it often.

Nick Daws Writing Blog is next with a post titled Seven Reasons to be Cheerful in 2009.  In this article Nick explains why the economic turndown might just be a really good thing for us writers.  Thanks Nick very inspiring.

Last but not least I have something for all the writers out there that like to write poetry.  Writing Roads are creating The Love E-book.  This project is for charity which in itself is always a good cause and they are looking for submissions for their ebook.  Deadline for submission is 31st January so why not take a look at what they are planning and see if you can’t help out.

That’s it for this Friday but I’m sure you will agree there is plenty here to keep you reading for quite some time.  So make yourself a cup of coffee or tea and get comfortable.  Just be sure to leave your comments and let me know what link you found most useful this week.

Until next time,

Keep writing.

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Article writing mistakes apply to all writers and non-writers out there. Now really is the time to start brushing up on your creative writing skills.

How Writing Articles Can Help Your Business

If you want to convert visitors into buyers or you want to promote your business, modern technology has provided one of the most effective means. This is, information based marketing. This is the most effective way there is to get people to your website and once there you can then promote your call to action.

If you’ve been watching the web, you will know that article writing, and article directories are an excellent means of getting traffic and converting them into sales. There are so many different tools available that you can use to make the process of distributing articles a lot easier.  This software said to be invaluable and saves so much time when it comes to submitting your articles but before we discuss software options and submission tactics there is something else we need to look at.

There are a number of common mistakes that people make before they even get as far as submitting their articles to directories so let us focus on these first.

1. Confusion

Many people tend to confuse the reason they are promoting their articles with the reasons they are writing them. When writing articles you should have three key benefits in mind regarding your promotion. You are promoting them for branding, lead generation, and promotion of your business. There is however only one reason that you write an article and that is for informational purposes. You want to inform your target audience and this is what you need to focus on first. If your promotion fails it is most likely because no one is interested in reading your articles.

When writing your article you need to keep your readers in mind, what do they want to read, what are they looking for, how can you help them. Once you have satisfied this, you can then make them click on your resource box which is your promotion.

2. Failing to maximize on the promotional opportunities available with article marketing.

As many article writers already know, submitting to directories can help generate back links to their websites and produce more traffic. But did you know that by submitting quality articles you can also get better search engine rankings? The more people that visit your website the higher your ranking will become.

When writing your articles you should try to include your keywords but make sure not to overdo them. Using anchor text in your resource box is an excellent way to promote certain keywords that relate to your website.

Back links are not everything and part of doing well with your article marketing is all about having your articles picked up and used by other webmasters. This allows your articles to be read by a larger audience. Whilst this method may not put money in your pocket it does help to get visitors to your website where you can promote your products and services.

3. Publishing content that does not help your readers

Some article marketers promote their articles solely for the purpose of back links and presume that any visitors they get from this will be fine. This is a big mistake and I should probably mention, that not all article directories will automatically accept your content. Many have specific guidelines that you must follow. Research here is essential because it only takes one publisher with a hundred thousand readers to potentially increase your reading audience overnight.

When writing your articles write articles that publishers want to have in their publications. This will ensure that your article marketing will work and be the most effective means of promotion. You will have to ensure that you follow the correct guidelines, spell check and proofread all your work, and research your topic.

Once you have done all this you will start to gain exposure from the quality back links that your article produce. It is essentially your choice. One other thing to note, is that the better your articles and the more targeted they are, the better your exposure and the better chance you have of promoting your product or service.

If you want to ensure that your article writing campaign is a success, make sure your avoid these three article writing mistakes.

Until next time,

Keep writing.

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