About the creator: Darren Rowse is undoubtedly one of the most successful bloggers in the world. He started his blogging career in 2002 and is best known as the originator of both ProBlogger and Digital Photography School. Problogger is home to thousands of articles and how-to’s, all injected with Darren’s practical and transparent approach to blogging.
Price: $29.99
Who It’s For: According to Problogger, 31 Days to Build a Better Blog is for bloggers at different stages of their blogging journey, including:
You’ve just started a blog and don’t know what to do next
You’ve had a blog for a while but it’s stalled in its growth
You’re a blogger with bloggers block and lacking inspiration
There’s no technical background included on how to set up a blog so it’s assumed that your online space is already alive and kicking. Aside from that, this workbook would be very useful to beginners and those looking for a boost in their traffic.
What It Will Help You Do: This is a 31-day program of small daily tasks designed to improve your blog. It covers everything from content ideas, the best social media platforms to focus on, analytics and more. It will give a clear framework to anyone who wants to improve their blog but doesn’t know where to start or what to prioritize.
What’s Included: The workbook includes one topic for each day and each topic is broken down into the following sections:
Teaching: An introduction to the focus of the day
Task: A breakdown of today’s task in detail
Notes: A few extra tips drawn from Darren’s own personal experience
Interact: A hashtag to use when discussing this topic (this was more relevant when the 31DBBB program was first launched)
Further reading: Links to related articles and posts
Example: A case study of the topic being implemented successfully
Each topic is covered in a good amount of detail but is broken down into a clear, actionable task.
The Best Part: I thought the content tasks were particularly strong; I particularly enjoyed the methodical approach to content generation such as mind-mapping and creating list posts.
You also can’t argue with the sheer value for money. Fundamentally you are getting each daily lesson from a true blogging expert for less than a dollar. There’s even a 60-day money back guarantee — no questions asked.
What Would Make It Even Better: 31 Days to Build a Better Blog was completely updated and redesigned in 2012. However, it could be updated again to incorporate newer social platforms and more recent working examples.
How It Changed My Life: I used this workbook as a framework when I launched my blog The Book Salon and it helped me methodically work through a very long to-do list.
Our Recommendation: 31 Days to Build a Better Blog gives you a well-structured, well-paced overview of 31 different ways to improve your blog. It’s great value for money and highly recommended.
This post contains affiliate links. That means if you purchase through our links, you’re supporting The Write Life — and we thank you for that!
Nothing brings on the urge to throw your laptop out the window like hammering out an assignment — often rushing or working odd hours to meet a tight deadline — sending an invoice, following up on the invoice, following up again on the invoice…and getting nothing. Media outlets are notoriously bad.
Why is this okay? Why do these organizations feel justified in delaying (or completely ignoring the obligation of) payment? Wouldn’t it be great if there were some big list out there of all the repeat offenders — the media that seem to always drag their feet on processing invoices?
And wouldn’t it be nice to know which outlets other freelancers are currently having trouble with, so you’d know not to work for them?
Fellow writers, this now exists.
Enter: Pay Me Please
The site is appropriately named Pay Me Please. It all started when Iona Craig, a freelance journalist based in Sana’a, Yemen, tweeted in frustration over an unacceptable fourteen outstanding payments from various BBC outlets. The founders of Beacon — a recently-launched platform built to support freelance journalists, of which Craig was already a part — saw the tweet, consulted the writer and offered to help.
“Iona’s been really successful and has written some amazing stories for her readers on Beacon, but in talking with her, we learned that non-payment from other media outlets is a constant frustration in freelance life. So we worked together to launch Pay Me Please to help,” explained Dan Fletcher, Beacon co-founder.
The concept is simple: a public list of unpaid assignments, submitted by freelance writers, with a mission “…to help freelancers get paid, raise awareness of the problem, name and shame outlets who are failing to pay journalists and thereby create a tool for journalists to refer to before they agree to work for a publisher or broadcaster,” said Craig.
The entries include the offending media outlet, the author’s name, a description of the work, the total owed and the number of days payment is late. Freelancers can submit new non-payment issues to the list by clicking the “Add a Job” button at the bottom of the page and filling out a quick form.
“The response has been extremely positive,” Craig said. “To the point that some who’ve been owed money for months just sent the media outlet the link to the Pay Me Please page, threatening to add them to the list, and that was enough to get them paid, which is great news.”
More tips for getting paid
In addition to checking the Pay Me Please page, the journalist recommends that writers considering accepting an assignment from an unfamiliar organization make sure they negotiate a price before beginning work and reach out to other journalists who’ve written for the outlet to find out what the going rate is. “That way you know if they’re trying to pull a fast one on you because you’re either new to the game or aren’t aware of how much they usually offer,” Craig said.
What do you think? Would you contribute to this site if you hadn’t gotten paid? Or would you worry the finger-pointing could come back to bite you?
Guest posting is a fantastic way to get your writing in front of new audiences, network with other bloggers and build your portfolio.
But apart from writing damn good content (which, of course, is a given), how do you navigate the process of pitching, writing, and follow-up in a way that will get you on an editor’s good side?
(And you want to be on their good side, not only to boost your chances of this initial post being accepted, but to increase your likelihood of being asked to post again.)
As Assistant Editor of Brazen Life and Managing Editor of Career Attraction, I’ve seen some fantastic submissions and interactions with guest posters, and I’ve also witnessed plenty of situations that made me want to staple myself in the eyeball:
A writer once pitched a fantastic topic, then sent me an email saying simply, “Hey, I changed the content. Here you go!” and attached a totally different, unacceptable post for no apparent reason.
I’ve received countless iterations of this mass email: “Dear [editor name here], I came across your [site name here] and want to offer you a unique, high-quality post totally FREE!! All I ask is a few links back to my site in return. Here is my post, please tell me when it will be published!”
While I know none of you would commit any of these grievous mistakes, there are some blunders I’ve noticed even quality writers committing, and I’d like to give you a heads up from the other side of the submission process. Consider it an inside scoop to give you the upper hand on the competition.
Pitching Your Post
DON’T write us until you’ve checked our writer’s guidelines
Most sites have a “write for us” page that tells you exactly what topics the site is looking for, what style of writing it prefers and how to submit your pitches. Look for it and review it carefully before sending us anything. Only if you don’t see one anywhere is a cold pitch acceptable.
If you get a lenient editor, they may be nice enough to respond to a cold pitch with, “Please check out our guidelines here and get back to me,” but even then, you’ve already lost points for not doing your homework. Editors are busy and receive tons of pitches every day. Ones that indicate a writer took no time to get to know the site he’s pitching are likely to be deleted.
We want writers whose killer posts will rocks our worlds. We tend to lose confidence in your ability to produce them when you don’t follow our basic guidelines.
DO keep it brief, to the point and specific
A line about how much you like our site is a nice gesture; sucking up for a whole paragraph is not. (Did I mention we’re busy people?)
Give a quick intro of who you are and what credentials make you awesome, then give us the pitch. And by “pitch,” I mean a catchy, well thought-out title followed by a few bullet points discussing what your post will cover.
Give us something to work with. “I want to write a post on resume tips” doesn’t tell us anything about what the post will discuss or how well you’ll handle it. “I want to write a post on ‘10 Resume Mistakes You Need to Stop Making Now,’ including X, Y and Z” is more like it.
DON’T pitch us without first checking our site for your topic
We don’t expect you to have our site memorized; in fact, we understand that many writers pitch us solely because our sites would be good exposure, not because they’re diehard readers. And that’s okay. But that doesn’t excuse you from checking to make sure you’re not pitching an idea that’s already been done.
Most blogs have a “search” function you can use to see if the topic you’ve thought up has been covered already (especially recently). If a site doesn’t, try Googling “[site name]” plus “[your topic idea]”.
Your best bet, even after this recon? Pitch us several potential topics so we can choose the one that best fits our site. You don’t know what posts we may have scheduled for upcoming weeks, so giving us options makes it easier for us to say “yes” rather than “no, thank you.”
DO show us what you’ve got
Not to be mean, but we don’t know most of you from Adam (or Eve). While you can list out the reasons why we should let you write for us, it’s much better to show us exactly what we can expect to get in a guest post from you.
Instead of saying “I’ve been featured on these sites,” provide us with links to your work. Try to select posts that share a similar topic area or style as our blog so we can really see you’ve got the chops. I can’t tell you how many pitches I’ve been on the fence about until I saw the writer’s examples to give me a better feel for their abilities.
Writing Your Post
DON’T make it all about you
While personal stories and anecdotes are a great way to connect with your audience and can really make your post stand out, readers are ultimately reading your post to learn what it can do for them.
So if you’re writing about a personal experience and what you learned from it, tweak your language so that you’re sharing your personal experience, then telling the readers what they can learn from it. Make sure you to use “you” as much as possible to make them feel invested in the piece. Instead of saying, “One problem most writers face is writer’s block” (which in itself is a horrible sentence), say, “If you’ve ever faced writer’s block (and what writer hasn’t?), you know exactly how frustrating it can be.”
Always bring it back to the reader and address them directly whenever possible.
DON’T neglect your headline
Most readers subscribe to dozens of blogs, and the one thing that’s most likely to grab their attention — whether they’re skimming their Twitter stream, RSS feed or inbox — is a headline that forces them to stop and think, “Okay, I’ve gotta know what this is about.” It’s also good for guest poster brownie points, because it demonstrates to the editor that you know how to write for the web and you’ve got your creativity hat on.
An added bonus for you as a writer is that crafting a strong headline can help you hone your focus as you’re writing the post itself. “10 Ways to Be More Productive” could lead to a decent enough post. “10 Ways to Kick Your Day’s Ass” will not only snag a reader’s attention, but will likely lead to a much stronger post that will keep that attention once they start reading.
Even if your content is flawless, most blogs follow a stylesheet, which means an editor will have to tweak some of your formatting before they can publish your post. Anything you can do to save them extra work a) earns you brownie points out and b) demonstrates that you’re really dedicated to providing content catered to the site (which earns you more brownie points). Before writing, take a look at current posts on the site and mirror the way they’re laid out.
Does the site center their sub-headers or left-align them? Do they prefer to bold key phrases or italicize them? If they include hyperlinks to other posts on their site, pepper in a few for good measure. (BTW, adding liberal links to your own site probably won’t go over well, and they will likely be stripped from the post even if it’s accepted, so don’t bother.)
After You Submit
DO be patient with us
Some writer’s guidelines will say precisely how long you can expect to wait to hear back on your submission. Others won’t. Either way, bear in mind that we’re juggling many responsibilities, including submissions from our current roster of writers, so it will probably take a little time for us to review your post and respond to you.
If we don’t get back to you after a two weeks or so, it’s okay to send a polite “Just checking that you received my post” email. (Starting it off with “I know you’re busy” is always a nice touch.) But don’t get message-happy.
No news is simply that… no news. It doesn’t mean we’ve deleted your email altogether. It doesn’t mean we hated your post so much we’re secretly stringing you along to see how much we can torment you. Give us a little time and, if you followed all the guidelines you were supposed to, we will get back to you, even if it’s only a “Sorry, but this isn’t the right fit for our site at this time.”
DON’T take revision requests personally
We’re not asking you to rewrite a section or flesh out an idea because we’re living out a Devil Wears Prada power fantasy. We want your post to be the best it can be, both for our site and for your sake as a writer. So please (please!) don’t take it personally if we tell you it needs some work.
We may be making suggestions that will make the post better suited for our site’s audience, or we may have spotted some things you need to work on in your writing. Either way, if we’re asking you to revise, it means we want to be able to use the post. Please understand that any notes we send you are a good sign.
DO be a good participant once your post is live
Too many writers see guest posts as free PR, working their butts off to seal the deal with their pitch but disappearing once their post goes live. The writers who really stand out in an editor’s mind (and are more likely to be asked to post again) are those who take an active role in the conversation around their post when it’s published. (Click to tweet this idea).
Subscribe to the comments and be sure to respond, ask questions and spur the conversation onward. Share the post with your audience on Facebook and Twitter.
Editors like writers who produce great content, but they love writers who also help spread the word about that content. Hit-and-run guest posters feel a bit insincere (and also demonstrate a lack of interest in the promotion of their own writing, which is sad). Go the extra step, and don’t let the relationship end once the “publish” button is clicked.
Do you regularly guest post for other blogs (or oversee guest post submissions for one)? What other tips would you add?
Ever feel like you’ve covered just about every angle for every topic in your niche and you can’t come up with anything new to write about anymore?
Topic fatigue is normal, and it can happen to any writer or blogger whose work depends on the ability to to come up with unique content on a regular basis.
If you’re having one of those “I can’t think of anything to write about” or “All my ideas suck” days, try taking a breather for a few hours or even a day to let your creative juices kick back in. If that’s not an option (read: looming deadline), check out these online sources that can serve as goldmines for article ideas:
LinkedIn Groups
Look up your target audience on Linkedin and join the groups that they belong to. Once you’re there, read the latest discussions in each group and take note of any questions or concerns that you can address.
For example, this guest post for Lifehack about freelance writing entry points was inspired by a question that I saw in one of my LinkedIn Groups.
Plus, mining Linkedin for article topics can also give you a networking and exposure boost. Once you’ve published your article, remember to share the link within the group discussion to answer the original question!
Blog Comments
This idea comes from freelance blogger Sophie Lizard. One of her favorite idea generation methods is to read through the comments of her blog posts and take note of any questions that she can answer or comments that she can build on.
“When I publish a post, somebody will pop up and go, ‘This is really cool but I wish you wrote more about this and that’, and I’ll go ‘Okay, then I will.’”
Clever, huh?
Go back and read the comments of the previous entries on your own site or on your guest posts and see if there any reader questions you can answer. Also consider whether there are any additional discussions, anecdotes, or points that you can write about.
Sites that make stuff go viral (BuzzFeed, Reddit, Upworthy, etc.)
Read about the events that are making waves in the mainstream realm and try to relate them to your topic. Being able to come up with a post that’s somehow linked to the latest box office hit, viral video or [insert most recent celebrity/political scandal here] will help you kill two birds with one stone.
Adding a timely element will help you get rid of your topic fatigue and be able to come up with an article. In addition, since people are more likely to read and share content related to trending topics, you’ll be able to increase the reach and traffic potential of your post.
Your inbox
Okay, so if it’s a really slow news day and you can’t find a good enough trending topic to write about, consider taking your search closer to home. Browse through your own inbox for any interesting conversations. Did a colleague send you something funny recently? What are the most common questions that you get?
Perhaps you can share a client success story and write about how it happened or how you did it. Case in point: Last month, I sent out an email that helped me land a new freelancing client. It was a big win for me, so I was feeling pretty proud of myself and I wanted to share it with the world. So I wrote about my experience, pitched the article to another site, and my post went live a few days later.
Let ideas come to you
You don’t always have to go looking for article inspiration. If you set up the right systems, you can have ideas landing on your lap on a regular basis.
If you haven’t done so yet, set up Google Alerts for specific topics or search terms in your industry. This nifty service sends relevant search results straight to your inbox whenever Google indexes a new page pertaining to your search terms, so you’ll always get a heads up whenever something new comes up in your field. (Hat tip to Carol Tice for the idea.)
You can also subscribe to industry mailing lists to receive curated news bits and events in your niche. For instance, since I write for many companies in the startup and eCommerce realms, I subscribed to StartupDigest for my weekly dose of startup news, and I signed up for IRNewsLink, Internet Retailer’s newsletter, to keep track of the latest stats and news releases in the eCommerce industry.
What are some of the mailing lists and newsletters in your niche? Find them and hit subscribe.
Bottom line: There are plenty of ideas to go around
Don’t let the slow news day bug get you down. Know that there are always new angles, topics, and events that you can write about. Finding them is just a matter of keeping your eyes and your mind open. (Click to tweet this idea).
You can also think of it this way: Having trouble coming up with new topics to write about can be a sign that you need to take things a step further and level up as a writer.
Perhaps you’ve found ideas in the same places and exhausted your resources. Or it could be that the communities or thought leaders that you follow just don’t fit your knowledge and expertise level anymore, and you need to join better groups or learn from more challenging books and courses.
In any case, if you’re stumped on what to write about, it doesn’t help to dwell on it. Instead, see it as a wake-up call to challenge yourself and explore new things.
How do you find new ideas during slow news days? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
GIVEAWAY: Will is generously giving away a Kindle copy of his latest ebook, Writing for the Web, to the person who leaves his favourite comment. Bonus points if you make him laugh! Comment within one week to enter. Good luck! (Update: Martina won!)
Many writers struggle with MSW addiction. They tell themselves they’re not addicted. They tell themselves they need MSW. They tell themselves they can quit whenever they want.
But they can’t. No matter how much they hate it, no matter how much they wish they could stop, no matter how much it affects their professional and personal lives, they keep using MSW.
I, for one, will no longer enable the use of Microsoft Word.
I know all the excuses.
“I’ve been using it forever.”
“I have to use it. It‘s the only way to get my work done.”
“I just need it for one more project. After that, I quit.”
Does any of these excuses sound familiar? Well, I’m here to tell you there’s a way out.
No more fighting with frustrating and convoluted menu systems. No more deciphering mysterious formatting and layout quirks. No more emailing Word files to your friends and colleagues with your fingers crossed, hoping your document appears correctly.
Word processing beyond Word
To start, you might try another, better word processor. Apple’s Pages and Google Docs are the heavy hitters and Scrivener is a long-time writer favorite. There are also new entrants, such as Quip, who hope to modernize word processing. Each of these programs is superior to Word, but you can go even further.
Be bold: quit word processing altogether. Or at the very least, quit using word processors for composition.
You see, word processors, especially ones like Microsoft Word, aren’t actually good tools for composition.
The act of composing is about ordering and structuring thoughts. It’s not about setting your margins or choosing fonts or italicizing phrases. But word processors are notoriously bad at letting you just compose.
Word processors conflate composition with typesetting. Making stylistic decisions about your work is a separate mental process from penning your thoughts. When writing software forces you to deal with presentational elements, it only distracts from composition. Even if you try to ignore the stylistic decisions, Word will be typesetting your text anyway. And you’re still stuck looking at a bloated interface built for formatting, not composing.
So during your composition process, skip the apps that want you to make stylistic decisions. Instead, use a plain text editor.
Editing in plain text
Plain text editors let you compose in plain, unformatted text. Notepad for Windows and TextEdit for Mac OS X are the standards, but they’re nothing compared to more robust editors. There are fantastic plain text apps that provide a heavenly writing environment, especially compared to the hell of Microsoft Word.
Here are a few options to get you started:
iA Writer and Byword are beloved by Mac users. They also have iOS counterparts, so you can use them on your iPhone and iPad.
WriteMonkey and Q10 are Windows-only options. They’ve been around for years and have been battle-tested by many a writer.
OmmWriter and Texts are both cross-platform editors, meaning they work on both PCs and Macs. If you use multiple machines with different operating systems, these programs are a great way to maintain a similar writing environment on each device.
Try composing in several different programs to help you get a feel for which one you prefer. I guarantee they’ll all be a more pleasant experience than your word processor. And if you absolutely have to, you can always turn to a word processor later in your workflow, when you need to format or print a document. (Although, I suspect that if most of your writing is intended for the web, you’ll have little use for it at all.)
Remember, friends don’t let friends use Microsoft Word. (Like this idea? Click to tweet it.)
How do you feel about Microsoft Word? Do you have a favorite program for composition?
Don’t forget to comment so you’re in the running for Will’s ebook giveaway! You could win a free Kindle copy of his latest ebook, Writing for the Web. (Update: Martina won!)
Freelance writing can be an extremely enjoyable and liberating career choice, with more earning potential and growth prospects than many other online freelance services — if you go about it the right way.
Opportunities to build your freelance writing career are increasing as more businesses look to enhance their online brands through content that gives value to their target markets.
Becoming a freelance writer isn’t rocket science, but it’s not a piece of cake either. To move into the top tier of freelance writers, here are five things you should focus on.
1. Brand identity: Develop your own following
My mom cooks awesome food. All moms do!
But will it sell as well as a burger at your local fast food joint? No way. It’s a simple marketing rule: brands sell better.
As a freelance writer, focus on developing a brand around your services. If you’ve been waiting to start your own blog, now’s the time! Express yourself naturally and build a community of like-minded people.
Be more than just an individual selling his or her services. Be a friend, a dependable guide and an honest mentor. Share your story and listen to what your readers have to say.
Have a look at some of the top writers out there and you’ll find that most of them make money because of the community that has grown around their brand. People can relate instantly to them.
Brands are about credibility, consistency, quality and relationships — four things your clients are looking for as well!
2. Specialization: Focus on your strengths
If you’ve been offering writing services on any topic, niche or industry, then I have bad news for you: that strategy is a dead end!
As more businesses look towards content marketing for their online survival, they’ll need more subject experts. Trying to serve everyone means that you won’t help anyone!
Identify your strongest areas: the topics you’re most passionate about, the ones that excite you the most and the ones that bring out the best of your writing skills. Once you identify them, stick to those areas and focus on the areas where you can deliver your best work. (Click to tweet this idea!)
3. Marketing: Spread the word
Many freelancers ignore this aspect of business either because they’re “too busy” with writing projects, or simply because they don’t realize how critical marketing is for their survival.
Every top tier freelance writer is an excellent and aggressive marketer. None of them misses any opportunity to tell the world about their services and how they can help businesses grow.
You need to do that as well.
Be proactive in your approach. Study the top writers and notice how they make marketing a part of their content. Promote your work through social networking websites, forums, articles and blog comments. Use the power of LinkedIn to get in touch with your clients. Join discussion groups and add value through your comments.
A lot of writers believe that content alone is enough to get them clients. That’s not totally inaccurate, but if you have a product or service that you believe can help your customers, why wait for them to come to you? Get out there and let them know about it!
4. Networking: Meet people, have fun!
As a freelance writer, networking is almost as critical to your chances of success as your writing skills are.
Many people find networking challenging. Here are three strategies to help you successfully develop relationships with fellow writers, freelancers and bloggers:
Comment regularly on the leading blogs. It helps you share your knowledge and puts you in touch with a lot of talented writers.
Send an occasional email to other bloggers and writers to thank them for a particular post that resonated with you. Make sure this is genuine, though!
Give feedback to other bloggers and writers. Comment on their work and if there’s an area in which you feel they can improve. Yes, you can do this even with top tier writers! Make sure your ideas are constructive by politely sharing your perspective on how you believe they can increase the effectiveness of a particular post or product.
5. Self Esteem: Know your value
This is probably the most crucial part, but it can be challenging to put into action.
As a freelance writer, you should know how critical your services have become for the survival of online businesses. The more emphasis search engines put on genuine high quality content, the more you will benefit.
But many writers seem to suffer from an inferiority complex. They might feel that writing isn’t as important as some of the other skills required to run an online business.
Reality check: every major website and online business is looking for skilled writers who can regularly produce quality content for their customers. And this demand is only going to increase as businesses try to attract more online traffic.
Your content makes thousands of dollars for your clients, who need you and would suffer without your services. So start valuing your skills the way your clients do!
What other tips would you give to a struggling freelance writer?
About the Creator: Jon Morrow is the former Associate Editor of Copyblogger and the brains behind Boost Blog Traffic. He’s big in this space, someone who practices what he preaches. And he has an inspiring personal story, too (more on that below).
Price: $499, with an unconditional 30-day money back guarantee. If you do everything Jon tells you in the course and you still don’t get a guest post on a popular blog of your choice by the end of the 90-day program, you pay nothing.
Who It’s For: Beginners and mid-level bloggers who want to learn about how to guest post on other people’s blogs. It also teaches why guest posting is a valuable strategy and how to leverage value out of the investment of your time on someone else’s blogs.
What It Will Help You Do:
How to find blogs that will accept your guest posts
How to create a relationship with the blogger/editor before you pitch to them
How to write awesome headlines
How to write awesome blog posts
What’s expected from you as a guest poster
How to leverage value out of your guest posts (Hint: it’s not about the links)
What’s Included:
Headline Hacks ebook
17 lesson videos (some with homework)
Various other course related .pdfs, videos, and podcasts
Access to a private forum
Help with reviewing and editing your guest posts before they are submitted–as in someone will spend quite a bit of time on helping you with your post.
Access to weekly video conferences Jon where guest posts are reviewed and Q&A sessions.
The Best Part: Jon Morrow. Jon is quite an inspirational person. As you go through the course, you get to know a little about his life story.
Jon has a way of writing and communicating that makes it seem like he’s in the room with you. He also wants to share and pass on those communication skills to you.
I also appreciate that the course teaches you how to guest post in a methodical and process orientated way. The course defines guest posting as a process and then explains each step of the process to you.
What Would Make It Even Better: The content of the course is great. What would help make the overall community better is to improve the activity of the forum between members. The potential of the community perhaps isn’t being explored to the fullest.
Our Recommendation: If you’re serious about your career as a blogger and plan to spend more than four hours a week on blogging in the coming year, then buy this course. You don’t want to spend hundreds of hours of work on your blog and not get something back from the time you’ve spent.
If you are an existing blogger with tens of thousands of subscribers already, you probably don’t need to go hunting for guest posting opportunities.
This post contains affiliate links. That means if you purchase through our links, you’re supporting The Write Life — and we thank you for that!
Have you ever pushed a big goal onto the back burner, even though you knew you were missing opportunities by procrastinating? Are you putting off creating your first digital project or publishing your first ebook with any of these excuses?
“It’s not ready.”
“I’m too busy.”
“No one will care anyway.”
“I don’t have a big enough email list.”
Hurdling these self-imposed obstacles is challenging, but it’s the only way to share your work with the world. I learned this lesson the hard way, but hopefully my story can inspire you to take action.
Opportunity knocking
When The Write Life launched on July 15, 2013, I received an email explaining that I was featured in the free ebook download given to each new subscriber to The Write Life newsletter. While I was excited that my advice for aspiring entrepreneurial writers was going to be shared with The Write Life community, I was also disappointed — in myself.
A missed chance
A few months before, I had finished writing the content for my first eguide, How to Become a Freelance Writer in 30 Days. However, on this fateful Monday, all 84 pages were still sitting on a Word document on my computer.
All I had left to do was to finish formatting the eguide, convert it into a PDF, and upload it to my e-junkie account. Yet I hadn’t pulled the trigger.
I’ll never know how many potential eguide buyers I missed out on that day because I’d failed to ship my book. And if The Write Life hadn’t launched that day, who knows when I would have received the kick-in-the-pants that I needed to buckle down?
Passing it on
Let this post be your kick in the pants. Dedicate 30 minutes or more of uninterrupted time to your big project every single day. Block it off in your calendar just like you would a meeting or a hot date. Make it a priority to share your knowledge with those who will benefit from it.
Creating, marketing and selling your first digital product isn’t a self-indulgent endeavor. If you can help shorten someone’s learning curve so they can reach their goals more efficiently, you should. Empowering others is a beautiful thing.
Have you ever missed a big opportunity like this one? What big projects are you working on? Share in the comments below!
Drinking cocktails on the beach with your MacBook on your lap…
Watching the robins singing merrily outside your window as you type away in your PJs…
Composing works of brilliance from a Starbucks armchair while the suits of the “regular” world eye you enviously as they rush past…
Chances are you had one or more of these visions as you worked to become a full-time freelancer. And chances are, if you’ve made the switch, you’ve realized just how unrealistic these visions were.
Don’t get me wrong, freelancing has plenty of perks: the freedom to choose your own projects, the ability to work when and where you want, the unparalleled luxury of being able to schedule doctor’s appointments any time you need to see a doctor without having to ask someone else’s permission. And you do occasionally have those idyllic Starbucks moments when you realize “Holy crap, this is the life!”
But more than one freelancer (this one included) has also experienced the full-blown, culture-shock panic that comes from realizing that, although you’ve heard “work is still work” a million times, freelance work really is still work. And make no mistake that full-time freelancing is hard work. (Rewarding, wonderful work, but hard work nonetheless.)
So, from someone who’s been there and survived, to anyone who’s about to go there, is currently there, or got through it but is still feeling pretty close to melting down, here are some of the biggest things I’ve learned about how to keep your sanity and your business intact once you hit the full-time:
Give yourself office hours — and obey them
You’d think managing work-life balance would be easier when you work for yourself, but for many of us, it’s actually harder. That’s because there’s no 5:00 p.m. clock-punching, no leaving the office for the weekend and shutting your work brain off till Monday.
Your office door is always right down the hall (or in a corner of your kitchen, or wherever it is). And there will always be more work you could be doing, at any hour of the day you happen to have some free time. More client outreach, more pitching your articles, more tweaking your sales page. Especially when you first start out, you’ll feel like you ought to be doing something every minute to grow your business.
But all work and no life makes for a stabby freelancer. You need to set boundaries — not just for your clients and loved ones, but also for yourself — that clearly delineate when you’re open for business and when you’re off the clock.
Make it clear to your business contacts when you won’t be checking your email. Make it clear to your family when you’re not available to run errands or answer questions about where their favorite sneakers have gone. And make it clear to yourself that although there will always be more you can be doing, you need to have personal time, for so many reasons.
Schedule “personal time” into your calendar if you have to, but take some every day. Don’t let yourself get stabby. It’s no good for business or for happiness.
Learn to work with your natural rhythms
One of the great things about being able to set your own schedule is that you can work with your natural rhythms instead of against them. (Click to tweet this idea!)
If you’re not a morning person, you don’t have to start working at 9:00 a.m., bleary-eyed and praying to the coffee gods for clarity. If you are a morning person, you can knock off half your task list before lunchtime and spend the 3:00 p.m. slump recharging or doing less-demanding work like invoicing or filing.
Start paying attention to your mood and your energy level throughout the day, and you’ll learn your natural patterns. Structure your workdays in sync with them, and your productivity level will skyrocket (making projects feel less stressful as a result).
Be picky about your projects
You don’t start freelancing because you hate working in a traditional office; you do it because you want to do work that you love. So, do work that you love.
In the beginning, you may need to accept a less-than-exciting job or two to get your business off the ground and keep the cash flowing. That’s not a sin; we’ve all done it. But as you establish yourself, you need to start getting pickier and pickier about what you take on.
Every project you say “yes” to means you have less room to say “yes” to another project. So make sure everything on your plate is something you really want and can handle.
Here are the key questions to ask yourself when contemplating a new gig: Do you have time for it? Do you care about it? Does it fit with your overall brand image and business plan? Does this seem like a client you’d be happy working with? Or will you find yourself, midway through the project, cursing the fact that you ever took it on?
Remember: you’re the boss now. So call the shots the way you want to call them.
Realize when it’s time to delegate
At a certain point in your freelance career, you’ll find yourself facing a crossroads: either you can start turning down projects (and profit) more and more often, or you can find a reliable team to help with some of the less “you”-centric tasks on your agenda.
If you’re a brilliant editor who’s wasting half his time inputting posts into WordPress for clients, can you hire someone to do the formatting, tagging, and other backend work so you can focus on doing what you do best — editing?
If you’re a great brand strategist, but your billable hours are getting bogged down doing website tweaks and newsletter scheduling, can you find a virtual assistant to take care of the administrative stuff so you can focus on your big-picture magic-making?
Outsourcing may not be for everyone, but if you’re really looking to scale your business, there comes a time when bringing on a team member can make real business sense. It allows you to take on more clients and focus on higher ROI tasks, and the cost of a virtual assistant or two could pay for itself twice over in revenue.
If you’ve made the leap to full-time freelancing, what advice do you have for those just starting out (or those who may be feeling a bit overwhelmed)?
This is one of the most common questions freelancers ask, so it’s a good one for us to address:
I have a piece I’ve pitched to one outlet, but I know that outlet can be slow in getting back, and the piece is time-sensitive. Is it kosher to pitch it to several places, then to let the others know if one picked it up? Or is etiquette to just do them one by one?
Our managing editor Alexis Grant, who has experience both as a freelancer and an editor, weighs in:
Whenever an editor is slow to respond to a pitch, it puts the writer in a tough position. If you pitched that publication, you’re likely hoping, perhaps even desperately, that the editor will say “yes.” But freelancers also can’t wait forever for a reply, and sometimes busy editors don’t respond at all.
So how long should you wait before pitching a different publication? And when you do, what’s your responsibility to the first editor?
Here’s the key to handling this situation: communication. (Click to tweet this.) So long as you keep the first editor in the loop about the status of your story, you’re good.
One of the most frustrating ways to get burned as an editor is to reply to a writer a few days after she has pitched you saying you want the piece, only to be informed the writer has sold it to someone else. So when you decide you’ve waited long enough and it’s time to move onto publication #2, shoot the editor a quick note — preferably in the same email string as your original pitch so she is easily reminded of which story you’re talking about — and let her know you’ve pitched it elsewhere.
Not only is this courteous; it might work in your favor, too. This is an opportunity for you to give the editor one last chance to claim the story. If it’s time-sensitive, remind the editor about that, too.
So how long should you wait before you take a stab at publication #2?
While there’s no hard-and-fast rule, I’d give an editor at least a week to get back to you, unless the story will be old and stale by then.
Before you move on though, be sure to send the editor a gentle follow-up — I’d send one four or five days after the initial note. Editors often suffer from full-inbox syndrome, and sometimes that means missing pitches that are a good fit for their publication.
Let’s recap your timeline
Again, there’s no ONE right answer here, but your timeline might look like this:
