Be a Freelance Blogger

The Expert Procrastinator’s Guide to Freelance Blogging

Stuck in that stuffy office, being a freelance blogger was the ultimate dream: working whenever and wherever you want.

But while my old boss made sure I worked 9-5, my new boss (a.k.a. me) seems to have no trouble with late starts and regular Netflix marathons. As great as that sounds, it’s not so good for the bank balance.

Getting your rear in the seat and doing the work can be a real challenge.

Many of us started freelance blogging because we wanted to be our own bosses, but who knew being your own boss was such a demanding job? You need to manage your time, motivate yourself and, occasionally, crack the whip and hold a disciplinary meeting, all before you even get started on the blogging.

Don’t forget about the inevitable disasters that’ll come along. I’ve been to hospital emergency rooms twice in the last fortnight, which meant at least one day of work up in smoke. No doubt you’ve had your fair share of catastrophe; in my experience, freelancing means you’re always either dealing with an emergency or waiting for the next one.

Whether you’re dealing with the lure of procrastination or the stress of unexpected setbacks, if you don’t work you don’t get paid. Your pay is directly related to your productivity.

Now, I’m no productivity guru. I’m not knocking out 10 posts a day or writing 100 words a minute. I watch way too much TV and love sleeping in. But in spite of my mad procrastination skills, I’m consistently able to hit all my deadlines and keep my clients happy.

The aim of this post isn’t to squeeze every ounce of productivity out of the day, but rather to succeed even if you’re a world class procrastinator. Here’s how to make your working time count, whether you’re dealing with a crisis or just want to binge-watch every episode of Parks and Recreation.

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By Haneef Davenport 3 Comments

Switching Freelance Blogging Niches? Here’s How to Do It Right

As a freelance blogger, you probably already have a niche: a certain subject or specific industry clientele that you know and write about well.

It’s important to establish your niche so that you gain trust from potential clients, can command higher fees, and your business runs along much smoother and easier than if you wrote about any and everything, for any and everyone.

But sometimes after you’ve chosen or established yourself in a certain niche, you’ll find as time goes on that… you honestly don’t want to write about this stuff anymore.

There are plenty of reasons why you might want to start writing in a new niche or industry. Maybe you’re running into too many not-so dream clients in this niche. Maybe you find it difficult to command higher rates for the niche industry you write for. Maybe it’s just plain boring now.

You decide that it’s time for a change, but you run into a little problem: you have no idea how to go about it.

For lots of freelance writers and bloggers in this situation, the big question is “How do I transition from one niche to another without looking like a fool or an amateur?”

Well the answer is easy, my friend! I’ve got five practical tips for you to use to transition into a new niche smoothly.

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By Nicolas Ayala 5 Comments

Dramatize This: 10 Screenwriting Concepts That Make You a Better Blogger

The film industry has a massive amount of jargon terms, some seemingly created with the sole purpose of confusing outsiders and innocent newbies.

C47s come to mind, the bleeding edge technology behind the creation of a film. (This high-tech device is also known to us mortals as a clothespin.)

But you’re a blogger. How does filmmaking even affect you?

It’s simple. Blogs are stories. Bloggers are storytellers.

Word by word, we transmit a message to our readers through a journey of highs and lows in our writing. Does that sound familiar? It should.

This is where screenwriting concepts can come in handy for your blog writing.

From the first Fade In to the final Fade Out, screenwriters have an extensive lingo for a wide array of concepts that they carefully use in their stories to make them emotionally compelling and narratively effective.

As freelance bloggers, we can learn a lot from their ability to create powerful visual stories out of plain words and engage with audiences through captivating narrative devices. The conflict, however, is that the convenience of these tools often gets clouded by a dense layer of confusing jargon.

So let’s dig into 10 useful screenwriting concepts and terms today, and I’ll show you how to adapt them to your freelance blogging work.

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By Dana Sitar 60 Comments

How to Show a Blog Editor You Understand Their Audience [Plus Your Chance to Win $150!]

The theme for this Pitchfest is: Audience. More on that — and the chance to earn $150 — to come, but first, here’s a quick tip to help you get to know a site’s audience quickly and how it’ll improve your pitches.

Every editor offering pitching advice will tell you, “Let me know you understand my audience and why your pitch is a good fit for them.”

The best way to gain that understanding is to become part of the audience. Read the blog, and engage with other readers. You’ll become familiar with the topics and voice of the site, and understand what readers look for in content.

But…

That takes time. And, frankly, if you write on the subject, you’re probably already reading 800 other blogs about it. Do you really want to add another to your reading list?

Most pitchers approach this conundrum wrong. They want to pitch a lot of blogs, so they Google their topic and send a generic pitch every site on the first page of results — whether it’s relevant or not. When I ran a blog called DIY Writing, you wouldn’t believe how many pitches I got that started with something like, “Since you write about DIY and crafting…” Nope. No, I do not.

You can do better than that… without committing to reading a novel’s worth of blog posts every day before you pitch.

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By Linda Formichelli 21 Comments

Freelance Blogging IS a Numbers Game: The Throwdown

You’re going DOWN, Sophie Lizard!*

In 2014, Sophie collaborated with Gary Korisko on a post and video called “Why Freelance Blogging is NOT a Numbers Game” that contains this tidbit:

Dashing off sloppy pitches to every blog in the universe is not the most profitable use of your time.”

Since my pet saying is “Freelance writing is a numbers game,” I’m taking this very, very personally. What, Gary and Sophie, you lookin’ at me?

Wanna see me get mad? Just watch this video: [Read more…]

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