Blog Better | Be a Freelance Blogger

Want to blog like a pro?

From eyeball-grabbing headlines to irresistible endings, here's how to write blog posts your clients will be happy to pay for.

By Nicole Hallberg 9 Comments — Last updated March 24, 2018

Why You Don’t Have to Choose Between Doing the Right Thing and the Profitable Thing

In the movies, the heroes decide whether to do the right thing, or take the money and run. Our decisions in freelancing can often look similar: Do I take the lucrative blogging gig, even though the client makes me queasy? Or do I starve with integrity? If you’re going to have a successful career as a freelance blogger, you should know right now that this is a false dichotomy.

Reaching your maximum earning potential and maintaining your professional integrity is NOT an either/or proposition. In fact, acting with integrity is actually the best way to earn the most money. It’s true—the top earners in this industry are the ones who stick by their values, whether they’re rolling in clients at the moment or not.

The fact is, acting with integrity is the best way to ensure that you are working with the right kind of clients, and earn the kind of reputation that keeps them coming in droves. Let’s take a look at how we ended up buying into this lie that you can either have your integrity, or financial success. [Read more…]

By Katherine Swarts 4 Comments — Last updated February 10, 2018

Secrets of Being 100% Honest and Dependable as a Blogger (While Still Loving Yourself and Your Work)

Do you want to be known as a freelance blogger with integrity?

Are you committed to all that “integrity” implies? It’s not just about never telling a lie, or being straightforward with your clients, or even finishing everything by deadline.

What “Integrity” Really Means

Word-wise, “integrity” comes from the Latin integritatem or integritas, which meant “soundness,” “wholeness,” “completeness,” “purity,” “correctness,” and/or “blamelessness.” So maintaining integrity as a blogger means being thorough in your writing and editing—and that doesn’t just mean “thoroughly” getting rid of typos. The online world is full of blog posts that are perfectly spelled, grammatically flawless—and achingly dull or incomprehensibly confusing.

Integrity of thoroughness—making a post complete and whole—includes: [Read more…]

By DeAnna Knippling 23 Comments — Last updated October 28, 2017

Procrastination: When You’re Too Scared to Start Freelance Blogging

You’ve blocked off your freelance blogging time, you have your clients and assignments all lined up, everything is ready to go…

…and you’re cruising around on social media, not sure why you can’t get started. You’re miserable and overwhelmed with stress. You open your word processing program, check the client’s requirements, and take a few seconds to research one last thing…

…and it’s three hours later, your mental energy has drained like a tub with a leaky plug, and you’re playing a video game with your neighbor’s six-year-old kid (and losing). You’ve done solitaire, Words With Friends, Angry Birds, Farmville and…

You still haven’t started your blogging for the day. You mean to. Really you do. But every time you try to get started, your throat tightens up, your stomach clenches, you get distracted by a Facebook ad for car insurance, and before you realize it, you’ve wasted the day.

On top of which, you haven’t made your earning goals, and…you start going broke doing nothing when you very much want to be doing something.

So much for following your dreams.

Here’s how to start recognizing the habit of procrastination and learn what steps you can take to negotiate with your inner two-year-old and their delaying tactics.

Instead of continuing a cycle of trying to guilt yourself into writing, using up all your willpower, then collapsing into mindless time-killers, let’s look at procrastination itself: if it were mere laziness, then you wouldn’t be so stressed! [Read more…]

By Katherine Swarts 2 Comments — Last updated August 12, 2017

How Your Attitude Towards “Interruptions” Can Make or Break Your Freelance Blogging Career

“There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.” ~ Henry Kissinger

A “crisis” doesn’t have to mean a major war or a major accident. If you’re like me, it’s crisis enough to hear your e-mail beep when you’re rushing to finish the post you THOUGHT you’d left plenty of time to write. The freelance blogging vocation is full of emotional hells born from underestimating working time and overestimating life’s cooperation with your schedule.

Anger over that can hurt you mentally and physically. It can also hurt you professionally, if it poisons your overall attitude toward “interruptions.”

Opportunity Was Knocking, But I Resented the Noise

Have you ever had a potential high-paying client call out of the blue, and blown the opportunity because your brain was locked into a “Plan A” that brooked no alterations? I have. Silently fuming over the upset in how I expected things to go, I fumbled any show of enthusiasm and radiated the attitude “take your business elsewhere.” They usually did.

Actually, this is part of freelancing’s learning curve. The self-employed life, with its limited income guarantees and potential dozen-plus “bosses,” is a constant balancing act between doing your best at everything that needs doing, and leaving room on the to-do list for new opportunities. If you aren’t careful, overcommitting on “Plan A” can rob you of a “Plan B” that might serve everyone far better. [Read more…]

By Kelly Gurnett 13 Comments — Last updated May 20, 2017

21 Unusual Ways to Find Blog Post Inspiration

There are plenty of questions I hate fielding from people when they find out I’m a freelance blogger (such as, “Why don’t you write for a newspaper?”). But at least I’ve developed canned responses for most of them (such as, “Because print is dying and traditional jobs make me murderous, Uncle Frank.”).

The one question I’ve yet to figure out a good response to, however, is one which on the surface seems fairly innocuous: “How do you come up with ideas?”

This is is because I myself don’t really know the answer to this.

I can say it helps to have a working knowledge of the publication you’re writing for, a sense of what has already been covered (and converted well), and a healthy heaping of creative spin to make your approach new and noteworthy. It also helps if you’ve gotten enough sleep, had enough caffeine, have nothing else stressful going on in your life, and are Seth Godin. (The man is so prolific it’s unnatural).

But even possession of all the above (minus, of course, Seth Godin) isn’t enough to ward away those times when the ideas Just. Won’t. Come. Some days you’re a wellspring of potential pitches and some days the well runs dry, but if you want to succeed as a freelance blogger, you have to find ways to prime the pump no matter what condition it’s in. Because your clients want content, and their schedule doesn’t revolve around your “aha!” moments.

When you find yourself at a loss for blog post ideas, here are 21 ways to step outside your stale, obstructed brain and jumpstart your creativity. Whatever topic you’re covering or audience you’re writing for, these hacks can be tweaked to fit your needs — and the timeframe you’re working with. [Read more…]

By Mandy Gardner 9 Comments — Last updated February 18, 2017

10 Great Apps and Tools for the Freelance Blogger

There’s nothing better than a great app or computer program that makes work quicker, easier and more fun. From a simple alarm clock to the most specialized email management software, the right app can not only keep you organized but help you enjoy your time at work.

As a freelance blogger, you’re already familiar with the most essential programs and tools of your trade: Microsoft Word, Google Docs, OneDrive, WordPress and Grammarly. If you’re like most people, however, it’s easy to get stuck in a technological rut and stop trying out new things after awhile.

You’ve got a lot on your plate as a blogger, in terms of coming up with creative ideas, meeting deadlines and organizing your accounts, and chances are you aren’t making use of the some of the best tools out there. If you’re a fan of technological assistance, the following apps and tools could help you stay on top of it all. [Read more…]

By Alicia Rades, BAFB Moderator 71 Comments — Last updated January 14, 2017

4 Things Every Freelance Blogger Should Do on Their Business Birthday

You made it through another year of freelance blogging. Congratulations!

Your business birthday is a big deal. Really, it is. It serves as a reminder of everything you’ve accomplished, and it gives you a chance to reevaluate your business annually.

Each year, I like to look over what I’ve done in the last 12 months and what I want to do the following year. You can do this on your business birthday—the anniversary of when you became a freelance blogger—or for the new year. It’s your pick.

Either way, it helps to take the time to sit down and complete the following tasks once per year. Good luck! [Read more…]

By Tee R. 8 Comments — Last updated December 24, 2016

4 Sure-fire Ways to Always Find the Time to Write (No Matter How Busy You Are)

Admit it. You think about it all the time.

The moment you open your eyes, while taking a shower, before going to bed, and even in the middle of the night when you unwillingly get up to use the bathroom. You think about it with so much joy that you can’t help but smile every time.

Your article idea.

Your brilliant idea that won’t leave your mind because you know it would make a huge impact. In fact, you are certain that it will change the lives of many people in your community.

But you just can’t find the time to write it now, even though deep down you know that the burning desire to write and create something of your own will never go away.

Then why do you keep procrastinating?

Each week you find yourself back to square one, passionate to start, but you give priority to a million other things that you need to take care of first, before you can sit and start writing.

OK, I know the feeling. I’ve been there so many times.

I cowered in fear because I thought that nobody was ever going to read what I wrote.

And you know why?

Because I didn’t take my writing seriously. I thought of writing as a hobby. Something that I did occasionally but not serious work that could actually make me money.

Does this sound like you? [Read more…]

By Lesley Vos 5 Comments — Last updated November 12, 2016

Fear and Loathing in Freelance Blogging: Your 7 Techniques to Smash Them

What makes us, freelance bloggers, different from writers?

We don’t believe that same old megillah about inspiration necessary for creating lip-smacking content. (Clients would kill us twice or thrice if we sat and waited for inspiration instead of met deadlines.)

And we’ll never agree with those claiming that everyone can master a writing craft once and forever.

Because all that’s bulls**t!

To master a writing craft, freelance bloggers dive into unknown niches, research, play with words, and polish drafts statedly.

We don’t write texts.

We build them.

But, to build well, we have to overcome fears. Some prevent us from writing, some turn into loathing; but none of us denies them. BAFB readers confirm: [Read more…]