There is a quick way to fast track your blog and get it ranked. It will only cost $20.00. Join Google AdWords. Here is how it works. You sign up for a Google Adwords account. Invest $20, Google says the minimum is $50, but they will accept $20.00 https://adwords.google.com/select/Login
To enter your blog or website into the program, they must rank and spider (read your website) within 24 hours. Your website is instantly submitted - no sand box. Your site is instantly ranked. And, it is rated for the campaign. Also, you will receive traffic to your site for the $20.00.
This reduces the time needed for your blog or website to be added to searches, receive search traffic, and to receive a Page Rank. A higher page rank equals more money from Google Adsense, more traffic from searches, and more exposure on the web.
However, there are a few 'tricks'
1. There should be 20 - 50 posts in the blog, even if these are 'free content' articles, reviews you wrote, or daily muses.
2. There should be at least 30 - 50 back links to the site. These can all be from another blog, forums, or directories. Many of these can be inside your blog, navigation links.
3. There should be inbound links from your site to other 'relevant' sites to help make your keywords solid. a) only use keyword anchor that matches the keywords you want Google to focus on. b) make sure the site you link to has the same keywords in the titles, links, and meta. c) use the keywords in meta information and titles on your blog
Following these rules will fast track your blog or website.
----------------
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inspiredauthor
Get Your Book Published
Get Paid To Write
How I Built a Career
Showing posts with label $$ Blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label $$ Blogging. Show all posts
Get Paid to Write Blog Posts - Ethical Problems
I must admit that Trick Falls made me start to think. One of the problems I face is that much of what I do, and how I do it, has become habit. When I am writing for new writers and work at home professionals, I often forget the 'little things.'
Trick falls asked about disclosure in a blog, and making readers feel like they have been 'advertised to' when they are reading. This forced me to take a good hard look at my blogs. I knew that I had disclosure. But, I never really thought about how I do it.
First, there are organizations that help bloggers with disclosure and ethical problems. There are several companies like womma that help bloggers learn how to use full disclosure and ethical blogging.
There are also disclosure badges from PPP and other places that let people know a post has been sponsored. I also use a comment such as:
This post is my thoughts and my message for the day. I thank XXX company for sponsoring it and allowing me to continue bringing this information to you free
Pay Per Post is one of the most ethical, and profitable, paid posting sites.
If you would like to make some money by writing a review for my blog, and let the world know about the information I give away free, then please click the red bar above. PPP will pay you to review my site.
----------------
Visit More Learning Sites:
inspiredauthor
Get Your Book Published
Get Paid To Write
How I Built a Career
Trick falls asked about disclosure in a blog, and making readers feel like they have been 'advertised to' when they are reading. This forced me to take a good hard look at my blogs. I knew that I had disclosure. But, I never really thought about how I do it.
First, there are organizations that help bloggers with disclosure and ethical problems. There are several companies like womma that help bloggers learn how to use full disclosure and ethical blogging.
There are also disclosure badges from PPP and other places that let people know a post has been sponsored. I also use a comment such as:
This post is my thoughts and my message for the day. I thank XXX company for sponsoring it and allowing me to continue bringing this information to you free
Pay Per Post is one of the most ethical, and profitable, paid posting sites.
If you would like to make some money by writing a review for my blog, and let the world know about the information I give away free, then please click the red bar above. PPP will pay you to review my site.
----------------
Visit More Learning Sites:
inspiredauthor
Get Your Book Published
Get Paid To Write
How I Built a Career
Should You Put Google Ads On Your Ecommerce Site?
Should You Put Google Ads On Your Ecommerce Site?
One of the biggest debates in the ecommerce world is whether to post PayPerClick advertisements on a website, or not. Many sites are using video advertisements to improve the look and feel of their sites. Others are hoping that PayPerClick will offer a passive source of income, but this short-term thinking may cost the company serious profits.
The purpose of a PayPerClick ad is to take a visitor from your website and put them on another website. This person leaves before they ever see the host company’s squeeze page, buy-now page, or Social Networking tools. This means that a potential customer is gone for good. The problem is - the ads on the host company’s website represent the competition.
PayPerClick Passive Income
On one side of the debate is the idea that PayPerClick lets ecommerce businesses generate some revenue from people who were going to leave the website anyway. The problem arises when the website looks at the actual numbers.
It takes several months before Google starts registering clicks, even if thousands of people have already clicked the link. Even when Google does start registering links, they rarely register more than one half of the actual links. In many cases, Google counts less than half.
Then, there is the Page Rank Trap. Google only pays a percentage of the money promised, based on the site’s page rank. A site can build more than 10 000 inbound links and 1000 pages of content and still have only Page Rank 3, earning about .05% of Google’s promised payout. Many sites (non MFA - Made For Adsense) work for 2 - 3 years before they earn $100 a month.
A website can make hundreds of dollars a month from Adsense, as long as the primary purpose of the site is to generate PayPerClick traffic.
PayPerClick Traffic
Many ecommerce businesses sign up for a PayPerClick program through Yahoo or Google to generate traffic. While the search engine advertising companies promise that they do not favor their advertisers, it is foolish not to. They are only cutting their throats letting sites which do not use their ads to rank higher than the sites who do use their ads.
From this side of the fence, PayPerClick is a good deal, because you are the company stealing customers from the competition. However, very few PayPerClick programs give the advertiser control over sites they appear on.
Google does, to a certain extent. It is possible to visit a major competitor’s site, which generates millions more hits than your site does, and place an ad on their pages. However, this does not guarantee that these same people will not click off your website.
Rule #1 of Sales
The first rule of sales is to hook a potential customer. This means keeping them on the host ecommerce site, and encouraging them to click through the links until they reach the buy now page.
There are some crafty ways to do this. For example, make the link bar to squeeze pages and buy-now pages look like PayPerClick ads. Another trick is to lead people from one website owned by the host company to another of their sites, in effect, creating a big circle.
However, make sure that the main pages are optimized with no=follow code in the links. Search engines penalize this type of ‘black hat’ SEO trick. The no=follow code in the ads will prevent the search engines from penalizing the site.
Both of these tricks will keep potential visitors inside the company’s ecommerce sites.
Another trick is to use a ‘default’ internal search tool. Instead of Google’s search, use one that defaults inside the ecommerce network’s sites, instead of on the world wide web.
Keeping customers is the only way to increase profits, and retain customers.
----------------
Visit More Learning Sites:
inspiredauthor
Get Your Book Published
Get Paid To Write
How I Built a Career
One of the biggest debates in the ecommerce world is whether to post PayPerClick advertisements on a website, or not. Many sites are using video advertisements to improve the look and feel of their sites. Others are hoping that PayPerClick will offer a passive source of income, but this short-term thinking may cost the company serious profits.
The purpose of a PayPerClick ad is to take a visitor from your website and put them on another website. This person leaves before they ever see the host company’s squeeze page, buy-now page, or Social Networking tools. This means that a potential customer is gone for good. The problem is - the ads on the host company’s website represent the competition.
PayPerClick Passive Income
On one side of the debate is the idea that PayPerClick lets ecommerce businesses generate some revenue from people who were going to leave the website anyway. The problem arises when the website looks at the actual numbers.
It takes several months before Google starts registering clicks, even if thousands of people have already clicked the link. Even when Google does start registering links, they rarely register more than one half of the actual links. In many cases, Google counts less than half.
Then, there is the Page Rank Trap. Google only pays a percentage of the money promised, based on the site’s page rank. A site can build more than 10 000 inbound links and 1000 pages of content and still have only Page Rank 3, earning about .05% of Google’s promised payout. Many sites (non MFA - Made For Adsense) work for 2 - 3 years before they earn $100 a month.
A website can make hundreds of dollars a month from Adsense, as long as the primary purpose of the site is to generate PayPerClick traffic.
PayPerClick Traffic
Many ecommerce businesses sign up for a PayPerClick program through Yahoo or Google to generate traffic. While the search engine advertising companies promise that they do not favor their advertisers, it is foolish not to. They are only cutting their throats letting sites which do not use their ads to rank higher than the sites who do use their ads.
From this side of the fence, PayPerClick is a good deal, because you are the company stealing customers from the competition. However, very few PayPerClick programs give the advertiser control over sites they appear on.
Google does, to a certain extent. It is possible to visit a major competitor’s site, which generates millions more hits than your site does, and place an ad on their pages. However, this does not guarantee that these same people will not click off your website.
Rule #1 of Sales
The first rule of sales is to hook a potential customer. This means keeping them on the host ecommerce site, and encouraging them to click through the links until they reach the buy now page.
There are some crafty ways to do this. For example, make the link bar to squeeze pages and buy-now pages look like PayPerClick ads. Another trick is to lead people from one website owned by the host company to another of their sites, in effect, creating a big circle.
However, make sure that the main pages are optimized with no=follow code in the links. Search engines penalize this type of ‘black hat’ SEO trick. The no=follow code in the ads will prevent the search engines from penalizing the site.
Both of these tricks will keep potential visitors inside the company’s ecommerce sites.
Another trick is to use a ‘default’ internal search tool. Instead of Google’s search, use one that defaults inside the ecommerce network’s sites, instead of on the world wide web.
Keeping customers is the only way to increase profits, and retain customers.
----------------
Visit More Learning Sites:
inspiredauthor
Get Your Book Published
Get Paid To Write
How I Built a Career
Does Google Identify The Original Version of an Article?
The problem of duplicate content goes far beyond the control of most web site owners. It is very easy to have two domain names pointing to the same home page.
http://mywebsite.com
www.mywebsite.com
More Examples:
http://www.example.com
https://www.example.com
http://www.example.com/index.htm
https://www.example.com/index.htm
http://example.com
https://example.com
http://example.com/index.htm
https://example.com/index.htm
Both of these URLs lead to the same web page. Unfortunately, Google sees two versions of the home page. Unfortunately, I use Cpanel, so I cannot do a 302 redirect, or at least, I haven't figured it out yet.
When all the arguments end, and the air clears, the only thing that Google does in most cases is stop ranking the web page (not site) where the duplicate content appears.
The thing you need to balance is. Is it better to rank high on each page of the website, or is it better to give my readers 200 'good' articles on a certain topic? Of course, you can rewrite every article at least once a year. That will solve the problem.
The purpose of this series of blogs is to encourage writers to submit free content articles for promotion - without fear.
And, if you do have fear, just reword some sentences, change a paragraph or two, use different words, cut a couple words, and then submit one version to the net, the second to your site.
Again, it is hard to measure whether you gain or loose.
On one hand, your content is not original.
On the other hand, you can gain hundreds of inbound-links, from websites with similar content (keywords) which will increase your rank.
Visit More Learning Sites:
inspiredauthor
Get Your Book Published
Get Paid To Write
How I Built a Career
http://mywebsite.com
www.mywebsite.com
More Examples:
http://www.example.com
https://www.example.com
http://www.example.com/index.htm
https://www.example.com/index.htm
http://example.com
https://example.com
http://example.com/index.htm
https://example.com/index.htm
Both of these URLs lead to the same web page. Unfortunately, Google sees two versions of the home page. Unfortunately, I use Cpanel, so I cannot do a 302 redirect, or at least, I haven't figured it out yet.
When all the arguments end, and the air clears, the only thing that Google does in most cases is stop ranking the web page (not site) where the duplicate content appears.
The thing you need to balance is. Is it better to rank high on each page of the website, or is it better to give my readers 200 'good' articles on a certain topic? Of course, you can rewrite every article at least once a year. That will solve the problem.
The purpose of this series of blogs is to encourage writers to submit free content articles for promotion - without fear.
And, if you do have fear, just reword some sentences, change a paragraph or two, use different words, cut a couple words, and then submit one version to the net, the second to your site.
Again, it is hard to measure whether you gain or loose.
On one hand, your content is not original.
On the other hand, you can gain hundreds of inbound-links, from websites with similar content (keywords) which will increase your rank.
Visit More Learning Sites:
inspiredauthor
Get Your Book Published
Get Paid To Write
How I Built a Career
Basic Blogging
There are so many sites that tell writers they can get paid to blog. Most of them have something to sell. Few are written by people who are actually doing it. Except now.
I am making about $300 - $700 a month blogging, and that is only after ten months.
HOW TO BUILD A BLOG
You can get paid to write blogs. The first step is to set up about 10 blogs. You need to also set up a squidoo lens and a myspace lens - at least one. The most important thing to remember is that this is 'not' a get rich quick scam. You will need at least 400 posts online before you will start seeing any income.
TYPE OF BLOG
-ADSENSE
The most important thing to do is find out what type of blog you need. If you want to make Google Adsense money and learn from an expert then go to www.writingup.com (Here is my referral code. If you do sign up, please give me the boost. http://www.writingup.com?referer=4062)
Another good site is bloggerparty.com. These two sites get hundreds of thousands of hits, and more important, they come up on Google searches. I make 90% of my Google Adsense money from blogs on these sites.
Yes, I have received Google Adsense checks. I expect to be receiving one every month within the next four to six months.
It may take several weeks, or even months, to learn which blog communities people are clicking at, and which ones they are not.
www.writingup.com, www.bloggerparty.com, www.blogger.com are good for this. Wordpress.com is good, but you need to download a plugin.
-PAY PER POST
This is where companies pay $5 to bloggers for posting their client's press releases. This can be tricky. You usually get 20 at a time, and only 24 hours to post them all. If there is a mistake, the post is kicked back into your inbox and it must be fixed before you are paid.
One such company is Bloggingad.com another is reviewme.com
If you are going to use PPP then do not use www.wordpress.com - they ban sites with PPP ads.
www.writingup.com, www.blogger.com, www.bloggerparty.com is great for this.
-AFFILIATE
I was paid to write one person's blog. This person had so many affiliate codes on the page it was impossible to navigate the blog. I have Amazon code, and I write book reviews and then link to the code. I also have code for my web hosting - a great webhost company that offers me server quality and size, for only $4.50 a month. This is all the affiliate I do.
I also don't try to use general code. If you go to my blog www.Historical-Novel.blogspot.com, you will notice that I have linked single book pictures and code.
www.wordpress.com is a great place for this because the blogs look professional and have credibility. I receive very few clicks from my www.writingup.com or www.bloggerparty.com blogs.
-ALternatives
Along with blogs, there is also Heliumknowledge.com, ww.reviewstream.com, etc.
HOW TO BLOG
Each blog should have similar topics, but not the same. If all the blogs have different topics then it will be too hard to make a living. The best bloggers write one article or post and then write 5 versions to put on five different blogs.
The content must be personal, conversational, based on your own experience, and link to references.
Write as if you are talking to a friend on the telephone. Do not preach or teach. Conversational language uses simple sentence structure and a grade nine vocabulary. All posts should be based on experience. Do not write a post 'how to make money.' Write 'How I make money.'
Reference links are important. 1. Google will use them to increase the rank of your blog. 2. Readers will know that you are not making the information up.
LINKING
This is as important as hits. The more incoming links the better. The best way to get dozens of inbound links is to write free articles with a link to your blog at the bottom.
NETWORKING
Post in other people's blogs. Reply to threads. Talk to people. This will attract readers to your blog.
You also need to promote your blog on Tecnorati and then go to www.pingoat.com and ping it 'AFTER EVERY' post.
For more information read www.writingup.com/gracepub There are more than 500 posts to help you learn to start a career as a work at home freelance writer.
I am making about $300 - $700 a month blogging, and that is only after ten months.
HOW TO BUILD A BLOG
You can get paid to write blogs. The first step is to set up about 10 blogs. You need to also set up a squidoo lens and a myspace lens - at least one. The most important thing to remember is that this is 'not' a get rich quick scam. You will need at least 400 posts online before you will start seeing any income.
TYPE OF BLOG
-ADSENSE
The most important thing to do is find out what type of blog you need. If you want to make Google Adsense money and learn from an expert then go to www.writingup.com (Here is my referral code. If you do sign up, please give me the boost. http://www.writingup.com?referer=4062)
Another good site is bloggerparty.com. These two sites get hundreds of thousands of hits, and more important, they come up on Google searches. I make 90% of my Google Adsense money from blogs on these sites.
Yes, I have received Google Adsense checks. I expect to be receiving one every month within the next four to six months.
It may take several weeks, or even months, to learn which blog communities people are clicking at, and which ones they are not.
www.writingup.com, www.bloggerparty.com, www.blogger.com are good for this. Wordpress.com is good, but you need to download a plugin.
-PAY PER POST
This is where companies pay $5 to bloggers for posting their client's press releases. This can be tricky. You usually get 20 at a time, and only 24 hours to post them all. If there is a mistake, the post is kicked back into your inbox and it must be fixed before you are paid.
One such company is Bloggingad.com another is reviewme.com
If you are going to use PPP then do not use www.wordpress.com - they ban sites with PPP ads.
www.writingup.com, www.blogger.com, www.bloggerparty.com is great for this.
-AFFILIATE
I was paid to write one person's blog. This person had so many affiliate codes on the page it was impossible to navigate the blog. I have Amazon code, and I write book reviews and then link to the code. I also have code for my web hosting - a great webhost company that offers me server quality and size, for only $4.50 a month. This is all the affiliate I do.
I also don't try to use general code. If you go to my blog www.Historical-Novel.blogspot.com, you will notice that I have linked single book pictures and code.
www.wordpress.com is a great place for this because the blogs look professional and have credibility. I receive very few clicks from my www.writingup.com or www.bloggerparty.com blogs.
-ALternatives
Along with blogs, there is also Heliumknowledge.com, ww.reviewstream.com, etc.
HOW TO BLOG
Each blog should have similar topics, but not the same. If all the blogs have different topics then it will be too hard to make a living. The best bloggers write one article or post and then write 5 versions to put on five different blogs.
The content must be personal, conversational, based on your own experience, and link to references.
Write as if you are talking to a friend on the telephone. Do not preach or teach. Conversational language uses simple sentence structure and a grade nine vocabulary. All posts should be based on experience. Do not write a post 'how to make money.' Write 'How I make money.'
Reference links are important. 1. Google will use them to increase the rank of your blog. 2. Readers will know that you are not making the information up.
LINKING
This is as important as hits. The more incoming links the better. The best way to get dozens of inbound links is to write free articles with a link to your blog at the bottom.
NETWORKING
Post in other people's blogs. Reply to threads. Talk to people. This will attract readers to your blog.
You also need to promote your blog on Tecnorati and then go to www.pingoat.com and ping it 'AFTER EVERY' post.
For more information read www.writingup.com/gracepub There are more than 500 posts to help you learn to start a career as a work at home freelance writer.
Use Blog Catalogue To Earn Money
At another blog community, I found a post stating that Blog Catalogue is a waste of time. I had to look twice, before I realized that the author was serious. Then, I went to their blog neighbourhood and found why.
1. This blogger never helped promote other people's blogs
2. There was no 'recent visitor' widget (high enough on the bog that the screen shot captures it and show other blog catalogue users) So, the big bloggers who will trade a 'view' for appearing as a recent visitor will over look him.
3. He did not collect a neighbourhood of similar blog communities - so no one knew he was there.
4. He obviously didn't appear on other blogger's 'recent viewed' widget (my neighbourhood is good - but it offers no incentive for people to repeatedly visit your blog)
5. He himself had not chatted with other bloggers or even participated at Blog Catalogue
So, there is nothing wrong with Blog Catalogue - there is something seriously wrong with this person's expectations. If you give nothing - you get nothing.
1. This blogger never helped promote other people's blogs
2. There was no 'recent visitor' widget (high enough on the bog that the screen shot captures it and show other blog catalogue users) So, the big bloggers who will trade a 'view' for appearing as a recent visitor will over look him.
3. He did not collect a neighbourhood of similar blog communities - so no one knew he was there.
4. He obviously didn't appear on other blogger's 'recent viewed' widget (my neighbourhood is good - but it offers no incentive for people to repeatedly visit your blog)
5. He himself had not chatted with other bloggers or even participated at Blog Catalogue
So, there is nothing wrong with Blog Catalogue - there is something seriously wrong with this person's expectations. If you give nothing - you get nothing.
Get Paid MORE to Write - PageRank
wrote a series of articles at DivaNetworking on page rank. The three page ariticle in the blogging 101 section is designed to help bloggers and work at home professionals learn how to build inbound links - and how to network - to increase their pagerank.
Increasing pagerank increases both traffic and the amount you make from Google AdSense clicks. The diva networking program does work well, but most people do not understand how important it is to network between good websites and pull up the page rank.
Take a look at the series and let me know what you think?
----------------
Visit More Learning Sites:
inspiredauthor
Get Your Book Published
Get Paid To Write
How I Built a Career
Increasing pagerank increases both traffic and the amount you make from Google AdSense clicks. The diva networking program does work well, but most people do not understand how important it is to network between good websites and pull up the page rank.
Take a look at the series and let me know what you think?
----------------
Visit More Learning Sites:
inspiredauthor
Get Your Book Published
Get Paid To Write
How I Built a Career
You Can Become a Famous Writer
It always amazes me how people appreaciate good writing, whether it appears on a blog, in an article, or in a novel. The thing is, anyone can write well. You can write something that receives hundreds, even thousands of views. You can write a novel that sells thousands of copies. The secret is to write something that people want to read, by writing about life.
Take a look at two blog posts I wrote that received top hits, despite the fact they are on a blog community, www.communati.com, that has hundreds of great writers on the site.
My first article received almost 500 views in less than a few hours. Within 4 hours of being written, it was on the ‘most popular list.’ Gladiolas, Dahlias, Pear Trees and The Secrets of Life . This is nothing more than a look at a quiet summer afternoon that I spent with my family, and how it touched me, and also touched my readers. The writing is not literary and flowery. There is nothing poetic about it. I just wrote it in a way that made readers look into their own lives. This is the secret of great writing, making people look at their own lives instead of forcing them to see life through your eyes.
The second is a tutorial on saving time. I did not tell people to save time. Instead, I showed them how I save time. There is a big difference between talking about what to do and how to do. The world is full of tutorials that tell people what to do, but never gives them the tools to help them do it. How Much $$ Does Multitasking Costing You?
You’ll also notice that I made some great titles. Are titles important? Yes. They are so important that I have even returned to my blogs and changed titles. In some cases, the hits increased.
So, next time you write, don’t just put words on paper. Think about your readers. “Take care of your readers and they will take care of you.”
----------------
Visit More Learning Sites:
inspiredauthor
Get Your Book Published
Get Paid To Write
How I Built a Career
Take a look at two blog posts I wrote that received top hits, despite the fact they are on a blog community, www.communati.com, that has hundreds of great writers on the site.
My first article received almost 500 views in less than a few hours. Within 4 hours of being written, it was on the ‘most popular list.’ Gladiolas, Dahlias, Pear Trees and The Secrets of Life . This is nothing more than a look at a quiet summer afternoon that I spent with my family, and how it touched me, and also touched my readers. The writing is not literary and flowery. There is nothing poetic about it. I just wrote it in a way that made readers look into their own lives. This is the secret of great writing, making people look at their own lives instead of forcing them to see life through your eyes.
The second is a tutorial on saving time. I did not tell people to save time. Instead, I showed them how I save time. There is a big difference between talking about what to do and how to do. The world is full of tutorials that tell people what to do, but never gives them the tools to help them do it. How Much $$ Does Multitasking Costing You?
You’ll also notice that I made some great titles. Are titles important? Yes. They are so important that I have even returned to my blogs and changed titles. In some cases, the hits increased.
So, next time you write, don’t just put words on paper. Think about your readers. “Take care of your readers and they will take care of you.”
----------------
Visit More Learning Sites:
inspiredauthor
Get Your Book Published
Get Paid To Write
How I Built a Career
Freelance Writing: Get Started PT2
The desire to write is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because it taps some of our most creative resources and forces us to find a way to express ourselves in the symbols we call words.
It’s a curse because getting it right, or even close, can be agony. Ah, but when it works, its sheer bliss, no matter how we get there.
Writing is also a blessing because it gives us the opportunity to share our ideas with others - potentially thousands, even millions of others. Not many ever get the chance to inform, influence and entertain that many people. Of course, that’s part of the curse too, because we have to find and reach our audience.
We all want an easier, softer way to write, and to get published and to earn money through our writing.
Sound obvious? Good. It should be obvious. Or were you expecting some magic? Some get rich quick scheme? Not here. Let's explore a bit and see where the truth is.
Write
Nothing can happen if you don't sit down and write. There's no escape; if you want to be a successful freelancer you must get words on paper. The trick is to write and to write regularly, whatever that works out to be for you. It might be every day, or three days a week; it might be X number of words a day or even a complete chapter a day. The nature of the schedule you evolve - and it will change over time - isn’t nearly as important as writing consistently.
Rewrite
Once you’ve written, you’ve got to rewrite. Okay], rewriting is usually no fun at all. But it’s essential. Rewriting is where clarity and conciseness appear. It's in the rewriting that our personal style begins to shine through, setting us apart from others and making our work salable.
Rewriting may actually be part of your writing or it may be a separate activity done before or after generating something new. It may be done in bits and pieces or you may sit down to a marathon editing session. However you do it, rewriting must be done.
By the way, it’s worth noting that some of your pieces will need more rewriting than other pieces. The more we practice writing, the better we get at turning out clean copy, at least most of the time. Even when you’ve been writing successfully for years, however, some of your writing will need major rewriting. It’s a fact of the writing life.
Market
The need to market is the bane of every writer's existence, but it's an absolute must if we are to be successful. Peter Bowerman, in his excellent The Well-Fed Writer, says, “The bad news: marketing yourself is a continuous process.” He also says that if you market yourself consistently (emphasis mine) we’ll be something like 95% ahead of the competition. My own experience confirms this and I like to spend at least a third of my time marketing me.
Part of marketing is researching potential markets, but that doesn’t count if you’re not out there contacting the publishers or others who may buy your material.
You just must find a way to become your own best sales person. Bowerman suggests cold calling potential clients, which can work if you’re looking for corporate, non-profit or business writing. If you want to be published in magazines, you must send queries or even articles on spec. Putting together book proposals counts if you get them in the mail.
It takes a while to get all three elements of successful freelancing working well together. But once you do, you’ll find you are well on your way to becoming a successful freelance writer.
Write well and often!
----------------
Visit More Learning Sites:
inspiredauthor
Get Your Book Published
Get Paid To Write
How I Built a Career
It’s a curse because getting it right, or even close, can be agony. Ah, but when it works, its sheer bliss, no matter how we get there.
Writing is also a blessing because it gives us the opportunity to share our ideas with others - potentially thousands, even millions of others. Not many ever get the chance to inform, influence and entertain that many people. Of course, that’s part of the curse too, because we have to find and reach our audience.
We all want an easier, softer way to write, and to get published and to earn money through our writing.
Sound obvious? Good. It should be obvious. Or were you expecting some magic? Some get rich quick scheme? Not here. Let's explore a bit and see where the truth is.
Write
Nothing can happen if you don't sit down and write. There's no escape; if you want to be a successful freelancer you must get words on paper. The trick is to write and to write regularly, whatever that works out to be for you. It might be every day, or three days a week; it might be X number of words a day or even a complete chapter a day. The nature of the schedule you evolve - and it will change over time - isn’t nearly as important as writing consistently.
Rewrite
Once you’ve written, you’ve got to rewrite. Okay], rewriting is usually no fun at all. But it’s essential. Rewriting is where clarity and conciseness appear. It's in the rewriting that our personal style begins to shine through, setting us apart from others and making our work salable.
Rewriting may actually be part of your writing or it may be a separate activity done before or after generating something new. It may be done in bits and pieces or you may sit down to a marathon editing session. However you do it, rewriting must be done.
By the way, it’s worth noting that some of your pieces will need more rewriting than other pieces. The more we practice writing, the better we get at turning out clean copy, at least most of the time. Even when you’ve been writing successfully for years, however, some of your writing will need major rewriting. It’s a fact of the writing life.
Market
The need to market is the bane of every writer's existence, but it's an absolute must if we are to be successful. Peter Bowerman, in his excellent The Well-Fed Writer, says, “The bad news: marketing yourself is a continuous process.” He also says that if you market yourself consistently (emphasis mine) we’ll be something like 95% ahead of the competition. My own experience confirms this and I like to spend at least a third of my time marketing me.
Part of marketing is researching potential markets, but that doesn’t count if you’re not out there contacting the publishers or others who may buy your material.
You just must find a way to become your own best sales person. Bowerman suggests cold calling potential clients, which can work if you’re looking for corporate, non-profit or business writing. If you want to be published in magazines, you must send queries or even articles on spec. Putting together book proposals counts if you get them in the mail.
It takes a while to get all three elements of successful freelancing working well together. But once you do, you’ll find you are well on your way to becoming a successful freelance writer.
Write well and often!
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Visit More Learning Sites:
inspiredauthor
Get Your Book Published
Get Paid To Write
How I Built a Career
How To Make Money Blogging
I had an interesting post from someone who claims to make $300 a week blogging. While I don't doubt this, it does bring up the topic of marketing plans.
The marketing plan I teach at this blog is for work at home and freelance writing professionals. The purpose is to help them build a clientele of people who want to buy their writing.
In our world, making $300 a week from Google is not a good thing - because the only way to make money from Google is to have someone leave your site because they didn't find what they were looking for.
In our type of marketing, we need to prove that we are efficient, expert, and able to deliver, by giving people 'answers to their problems' and helping them 'learn.' Only then will they trust us enough to buy our articles and ask us to write in their blogs.
"I haven't heard of Web2.0" - this is a main problem with most people who want to make money on the web. It was our problem.
inspiredauthor.com our number one 'free' learning site, once offered the writers a viable income. We were #1 on book reviews and had a major fan base. We did not keep up with the SEO developments and within 3 months we lost all of our hits - hundreds of thousands of hits were gone.
It took us more than 18 months to recover because we had to play catch up to the sites which were 'keeping up.' Web2.0 is active.
The browser 'hijacking' of the web through the new - customized search - that keeps a user's history in the PC/Mac and uses that to help the user find sites in the future (which seems to also direct them to the higher PPC sites) is also alive and kicking.
We optimized for Web2.0 last year. Sites that are just now optimizing are at the bottom of the pile. The problem with web2.0 is that webmasters will not be able to invest 3 months, or $5000, to bring their sites up to spec.
Because it takes months to build a network. And, once you are in the network, and your browser saves your history, the network will keep popping up near or at the top of searches.
That is why Donna's Fantasy section at inspiredauthor (which has already reached the 200 article 'golden' mark) has more than 80 000 hits only 3 months after it went live..... and Sharon Hurley Hall is on page #1 for ghostwriter - because they have invested a lot of time in networking.
When everyone else realizes that Vista will only make the 'selective browser based on history search' more powerful, it will be too late. People who start networking now will be years ahead.
I learned my lesson the hard way. I now update my SEO marketing certification every year. Am I saying that the old methods won't work - of course not. They will work. What I am saying is that they will not work for people who make their money by 'keeping them on the website' or for people who need to build a client base or fan base.
BTW - I am also lea
rning a lot about CMS web design. Take a look at what I put online at the school writersonlinecourses.com I still have a lot of work, but I think I am rather pleased.
My 'teaching blog' for people who want a 'real' freelance writing career.
Novel Writer Magazine
The marketing plan I teach at this blog is for work at home and freelance writing professionals. The purpose is to help them build a clientele of people who want to buy their writing.
In our world, making $300 a week from Google is not a good thing - because the only way to make money from Google is to have someone leave your site because they didn't find what they were looking for.
In our type of marketing, we need to prove that we are efficient, expert, and able to deliver, by giving people 'answers to their problems' and helping them 'learn.' Only then will they trust us enough to buy our articles and ask us to write in their blogs.
"I haven't heard of Web2.0" - this is a main problem with most people who want to make money on the web. It was our problem.
inspiredauthor.com our number one 'free' learning site, once offered the writers a viable income. We were #1 on book reviews and had a major fan base. We did not keep up with the SEO developments and within 3 months we lost all of our hits - hundreds of thousands of hits were gone.
It took us more than 18 months to recover because we had to play catch up to the sites which were 'keeping up.' Web2.0 is active.
The browser 'hijacking' of the web through the new - customized search - that keeps a user's history in the PC/Mac and uses that to help the user find sites in the future (which seems to also direct them to the higher PPC sites) is also alive and kicking.
We optimized for Web2.0 last year. Sites that are just now optimizing are at the bottom of the pile. The problem with web2.0 is that webmasters will not be able to invest 3 months, or $5000, to bring their sites up to spec.
Because it takes months to build a network. And, once you are in the network, and your browser saves your history, the network will keep popping up near or at the top of searches.
That is why Donna's Fantasy section at inspiredauthor (which has already reached the 200 article 'golden' mark) has more than 80 000 hits only 3 months after it went live..... and Sharon Hurley Hall is on page #1 for ghostwriter - because they have invested a lot of time in networking.
When everyone else realizes that Vista will only make the 'selective browser based on history search' more powerful, it will be too late. People who start networking now will be years ahead.
I learned my lesson the hard way. I now update my SEO marketing certification every year. Am I saying that the old methods won't work - of course not. They will work. What I am saying is that they will not work for people who make their money by 'keeping them on the website' or for people who need to build a client base or fan base.
BTW - I am also lea
rning a lot about CMS web design. Take a look at what I put online at the school writersonlinecourses.com I still have a lot of work, but I think I am rather pleased.
My 'teaching blog' for people who want a 'real' freelance writing career.
Novel Writer Magazine
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